Submissive Dragons Part 3: Burning Poison
by GemNika
Summary: He stands apart from his fellow Slayers in more ways than one. Murderer, criminal, Second-generation Slayer. And while Cobra is just a little detached from his sanity, the woman with a soul like a lightning storm who saves his life gives him a run for his money. Can Flare be the one to finally tame the Poison Slayer, or will his toxic past tear them apart? (Rated M for a reason)
1. A Fire in the Desert

**A/N: As I've said in the other parts for this series, every BDSM relationship is different. Let's see how it goes with** _ **this**_ **one. I don't really have time to run through this again and give it a full edit, so please excuse any errors.**

 **I'll be working on my novel for all of November, but I have enough written for all of my stories to post one chapter each week for the month.**

* * *

His throat was dry. So, so dry. And the fact that he'd been blown halfway across Fiore from that asshole's spell going haywire really wasn't helping matters.

He was going to kill Jellal for this. Using magic while so drunk that he could hardly remember how to fucking _breathe_ had been one of the dumbest ideas the guild leader had ever had.

But now, Cobra was stuck in a fucking desert, the middle of a desert, with a hole in his leg that wouldn't stop bleeding, a most definitely fractured wrist, maybe a cracked rib, no food or water, and what he could already tell were the beginnings of dehydration setting in. It had been three hours since he'd landed in a painful pile on the sand, and there wasn't a soul anywhere in a forty mile radius of him.

So, he'd done what every idiotic piece of shit in every single movie that _ever_ got stranded in a desert did. He picked a random direction and started walking in the hopes of it leading him to civilization. Or water. Or a doctor. Even a damn animal he could kill and eat would be nice.

But his throat was just so dry. He wasn't even sweating anymore, and while most of him was thankful for that, a good portion of the Poison Slayer knew just what it meant.

"I'm… s-so gonna pass out… and die out here."

For once in his life, Cobra was glad that Cubellios was no longer with him. Because if she'd been out here and injured with him, then he would have had to watch her die. And then he would have cried while eating her for at least a little nourishment to keep him going.

Cobra stumbled and groaned as he hit the ground. A wild jolt of pain speared up his wrist and into his arm. The hole in his leg was still bleeding, even through the torn bit of his shirt that he'd wrapped around it to slow the flowing blood.

"Gonna… wither away," he rasped. He was just going to take a little breather for a minute, because Cobra was suddenly realizing that he was completely exhausted. "Vultures will… come and… p-pick my bones clean…"

Cobra's head lowered to the searing sand. His single indigo eye slid closed as the sun continued to beat down on his back.

"At least… I won't f-feel it… when they…"

Several minutes passed in silence while the cloaked figure standing just a few feet away watched Cobra lose consciousness. Hands lifted to the hood and pushed it back to reveal a pair of gleaming burnished orange eyes that watched the slow, shaky rise and fall of Cobra's chest.

"Poor thing," Flare whispered. She moved forward and carefully lifted the mysterious tanned man with her hair, then carried him back the way she'd come. Back to Sun Village.

* * *

Cobra came awake slowly, which upon later reflection was weird as hell for him, and his eye slid open to find everything was blurred. Distorted. The scents in the air were oddly earthy, more than he'd ever smelled at one time before. But the souls. Those had his skin crawling with awareness.

They were thunderous. Nearly roaring with their intensity. Each one rumbled in a low bass that wasn't anywhere close to being human, but they were too orderly to be animals. The scent of cinnamon and embers drifted through the air, cutting through everything else, and his gaze shifted to the side to find a blurry form moving closer to him from an even blurrier shadowy oval just beyond.

"You're awake," Flare smiled gently. "I was worried we didn't have what you would need in the village to tend to your wounds."

"Wh…" His throat scratched uncomfortably and he winced at the sharp pain in his wrist when he tried to move.

"You've been out for a few days though," Flare continued while grabbing a cup of water.

Cobra shivered as something soft and warm surrounded him, sifted through his hair against his scalp, and carefully lifted his exhausted body into a sitting position.

"Slow sips, okay?" she whispered while standing next to the futon on the floor. One section of her hair brought the cup to his lips, and she watched as they parted and accepted just the smallest bit of water. Then another sip.

She reached over to the nearby table and grabbed fresh gauze, then carefully pulled the blanket away from his injured leg while keeping his very bare privates covered. Flare removed the old bandages and set about cleaning the wound she'd had to cauterize with her hair, pausing only when Cobra's leg jumped away from the pain.

And Cobra, for his part, simply waited for his vision to clear after he'd finished the water. It didn't dawn on him until he could see the woman's face, that he couldn't hear a thing from her soul.

And that was just creepy. Much creepier than the nearly vacant eyes looking back at him. But now that his vision had cleared, he could see the simple room he was in. Bare walls, no decoration at all. And then he looked back at her, his brow furrowing when he saw her russet-colored hair hanging loose down the length of her torso.

Flare brushed a few strands of Cobra's sweaty hair back from his only working eye with her hair. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Cobra." He blinked in surprise while watching Flare's hair move around, some adjusting the blanket to cover his leg again, while other strands shifted against his back and arms and head. This was just wrong on so many levels. "Where am I?"

"Sun Village," she said. "We don't get many visitors here."

He sighed as her hair danced over his skin and carefully laid him back down on the futon. He wasn't going to admit to anyone that it felt absolutely heavenly as those soft strands brushed across his flesh. And he was more than enthralled by her hair folding itself back into twin braids that ran down her chest then curved behind her back.

"Is there… maybe someone I can get in touch with for you?" Flare asked. "Friends or family?"

"I don't really have either," he said softly. Which was true. His guild mates were neither his friends, nor his family. Midnight and the others were closer to him than most, but he still didn't trust any of them. Not like they trusted one another.

"You're a mage though," she said. "Maybe I can call your guild?"

"How do you know that?"

Flare gave him another gentle smile. "You woke up a couple hours ago, spitting poison everywhere. Then you passed out again."

"I…" Cobra frowned as he stared at her, straining his magic to hear even the smallest whisper in her soul. Maybe she was a doll or something though. Some puppeteer mage pulling invisible strings somewhere could be controlling her.

"You should get some more rest," Flare whispered. "If you think of someone to call, let me know. I can get in touch with a, um… friend of mine. She'll pass the message along for me."

Cobra nodded and watched her stand and walk toward the archway leading from the room. She didn't see his eye raking over the dangerous curves of her body. And just before Flare left the room, she glanced back at the Poison Slayer with another small smile.

' _What a sexy little thing, he is… Cobra… I might have to call Blondie and see if she's ever heard of him.'_

He was left speechless at the single thought from the redhead. The only part of her soul he'd been able to hear. And just like a lightning strike, her soul disappeared in a flash.

"Rest well, Cobra," she said. "My name is Flare, by the way."

With that, she was gone. And Cobra was left staring at the doorway with no clue how to get into her head and find out just what the hell was going on with that blocking shit she'd done.

* * *

"Oh, don't drink that," Flare said as she rushed into the room. "It's…"

Cobra glared at the woman out of the corner of his eye when she tried to take the bottle from him, chugging the rest before he finally handed it to her.

"... Peroxide," Flare muttered, staring at the little brown bottle.

"I know how to read."

"You…" Flare tossed the bottle on the floor and fell to her knees beside Cobra while reaching for his mouth. "You're gonna get sick!"

The Poison Slayer growled low in his throat while swatting her hands away, then roared in pain when his wrist, wrapped in a simple splint, banged against the ground. "Motherfucker!"

"Cobra, you're gonna get sick from drinking that!" Flare shouted.

His jaws snapped at her wildly as he held his injured arm to his chest, and he watched in horror as her hair unbraided itself and wrapped tightly around his body to keep him from hitting her.

"Here, I'll help, okay?" Flare said. She forced his jaw open and got ready to shove her fingers down his throat, then her eyes went wide as a thick plume of crimson gas leaked from between his lips. Without another thought, she backed away. Her hair still held him in place on the futon even as the gas dissipated.

"I'm a Poison Dragon Slayer, you fucking moron," Cobra snarled.

"I'm not the idiot who nearly died in a fucking desert!" she snapped. "Don't call me stupid!"

"Fuck off," he said while shaking free of her hair and rolling onto his side. Cobra hissed in pain and looked down at the splint on his wrist to make sure it was still in place. Everything was solid. Except for the broken bullshit under his damn skin.

"Hey, are you okay?" Flare asked gently. _'Wow, that's a lot of scars on his back…'_

"Peachy motherfucking keen over here," he shot back over his shoulder. "Leave me alone."

"You hurt yourself…"

"No, Jellal's drunken bullshit spell hurt me. I'm just trying to…" His words cut off on a strangled whimper as the throbbing in his wrist increased. "Fuck…"

"Just trying to fuck?" Flare giggled, shuffling closer. "That's a weird thing to say in your condition." Cobra tensed when she was finally next to him again. "Can I see? I might be able to help."

"Go die in a fucking fire," he ground out.

"Can't," she said while rolling him onto his back again. She unwrapped the bindings around the splint she'd made and gingerly brushed her fingers over the swollen joint. "The Eternal Flame gave me a gift, and now fire doesn't hurt me."

"Well poison doesn't hurt me," he said. "It'll actually help me heal faster." He hissed and pulled his hand from her when she pushed on the joint a little too hard.

"Let me see," Flare whispered. Her hair unbound itself and carefully pulled Cobra's deeply tanned arm closer. Instead of fighting her, the limp appendage came easily, and her hair warmed only slightly while winding around it. "I'm not a doctor, or anything close, so I hope I'm not making it worse."

"Better than nothing at all," he shrugged.

"How's your leg?"

"Hurts like a bitch."

"And your ribs?"

Cobra shrugged again. "Not so bad."

"And your stupid face?" Flare giggled when he growled at her, flicking a section of her hair across his nose. "Blondie was right. You're fun to tease."

"Who the hell are you talking about?"

" _Come on, Blondie! Are you really gonna let me hurt that little girl?" Flare cackled while hovering over the beaten and bloody Celestial mage in the Grand Magic Games arena. Her hair shifted in a Raven Tail emblem and the strands ignited with a brilliantly burning fire. "What to mark first…"_

"Oh," Cobra muttered. "Lucy."

Flare nodded with a small frown. "How did you…"

"Doesn't matter," he sighed. "So you're part of the gang, I guess."

"Gang?"

"Yep. People who tried to kill her then turned all buddy-buddy with the crazy wench."

Flare's frown deepened and her grip on Cobra's wrist nearly tightened before she remembered that it was broken. "Don't talk about her that way."

"Very protective," he chuckled. Cobra's eye flashed with wicked excitement. "Should I let Laxus know someone's wanting to horn in on his wonder-snatch?"

"It's not like that…"

Cobra's sharp reply stuck in his throat as he took in Flare's downcast eyes. Every time she was like this, her soul went quiet.

"She forgave me for being stupid. For listening to Ivan because I didn't know any better. I tried to kill that little girl, but Blondie still forgave me. And… I was even able to help her after the Games when those dragons showed up."

"You were there too?"

Flare's eyes widened and cut over to the smirking mage on the futon. "Were you?"

"They let me out of prison just to fight a dragon. I didn't even get the chance to kill the stupid thing before everything disappeared."

"Prison?" she asked. "What for?"

"For trying to destroy the world," he chuckled. "Twice."

"Who stopped you?"

"Lucy and her asshole friends, of course. Fucking Fairy Tail, always wriggling out of the woodwork to fuck up a perfectly good evil scheme."

"They're kinda like that, huh?" Flare giggled.

"Sort of. Not all bad though, I guess." Fairy Tail definitely wasn't _all_ bad. Kinana was there, after all. The two spent several minutes in silence, and he looked down once he felt Flare's hair unwinding from around his wrist. It still hurt more than anything, but she'd at least taken the worst of the pain away. "Thanks," he said while she replaced the splint.

Flare nodded. "Blondie also told me that she was getting in touch with your guild. They'll be coming to get you. I already let everyone in the village know they were coming, so you won't have to worry about your friends being killed."

"They're not my friends."

Flare's gaze settled on his scowling lips. "That must be really lonely," she whispered. "I didn't have any friends until I met Blondie."

"Yeah, well…"

She stood and started walking toward the door again. "I'll go and find something to poison you with."

Cobra had to hide the sudden spike of arousal that flared in his veins when she looked at him over her shoulder with her lips curving into the most sadistic grin he'd seen in years. "Can't wait to see what you come up with," he chuckled.

"Bye, Cobra."

"Yeah. See ya, Gingerbread."

Flare let out a secret smile once she was out the door, a bright blush lighting up her cheeks. She was completely unaware that the man in the room was able to very clearly hear her internal squeal of, _'Gingerbread… That's so cute!'_

* * *

Flare bit her lip while draping Cobra's arm over her shoulders. She'd done her best to cauterize the wound in his leg, and while she was happy that he was apparently incapable of getting an infection due to the Dragon Slayer lacrima in his chest, she was still worried about him. He said it was just that he hadn't been walking very much, and his muscles were tense and underused.

She was sure it was something else entirely. But Flare wasn't going to say anything about it. She would just keep it to herself.

"So, the others said they saw your guild through the trees on the edge of the forest an hour ago," Flare whispered. "They should be here soon."

Cobra nodded and shifted his still splinted wrist where it sat in the sling Flare had made for him. It was just a slip of fabric knotted on top of his shoulder, but he at least appreciated the effort. He definitely appreciated the fact that she'd stitched up the holes in his clothing. He couldn't even tell where there had been rips in the fabric anymore.

"I feel kinda bad that you were cooped up in my room this whole time," she said.

Cobra paused in his step to stare at her. "Your… room?"

She nodded and gave him a small smile. "Yeah. All the other rooms are a little big so my family will fit. I figured you'd be more comfortable if you weren't always surrounded with all the men."

While that made sense, Cobra had yet to see a single person in this whole village. Even as they walked out of the small building that held only a bedroom and bathroom, there was no one else around. The buildings were enormous though. Far larger than any building really needed to be in a small place like this.

He could hear dozens of souls nearby though. Somewhere close. Maybe in the buildings. They sounded so strange, he was curious to see just who would have a soul like that.

And then he caught the familiar cadences of his guildmates' souls. Midnight's dreary violins and Angel's chirping piccolos. Jellal's grinding stone as he smothered himself in guilt. Racer's buzzing and Richard's strumming harps. And fucking Meredy with her bubblegum techno bullshit. Then one other soul that he really just couldn't place. Familiar, but he wasn't too worried about it.

It almost made him want to rip his arm off and beat them all to death so he wouldn't have to hear that shit anymore.

"Where is everyone?" Cobra asked softly.

"Well your guild-"

"I mean your… family." It was almost physically painful to say that word. He wasn't really sure why, but maybe it had something to do with his incessant nightmares about watching his mother get killed by a guard in the Tower. Maybe.

"Oh," Flare muttered. "They, um… They were worried you'd be scared of them. I kind of asked them to stay inside while you left."

And while Cobra wanted nothing more than to sate his curiosity about the owners of those souls he kept hearing, he wasn't looking to get attached to this woman. Meeting her family was a bit sudden. Besides, all she'd done was bandage him up, and make sure he was alright, and keep an eye on him, and made sure he was comfortable. Saved his fucking life.

Nothing major, really.

"Cobra!"

He rolled his eye at the shrill screech coming from Meredy as she dashed ahead of the group to meet up with him sooner. He really couldn't stand the way she thought of him as an older brother. Clingy little monster, she was.

"Stop shouting!" he snarled.

"You're yelling too," Meredy laughed. She lunged as soon as the Poison Slayer was close enough, ready to hug him even though she knew he hated being touched.

And it would have happened if it hadn't been for the sudden wall of hair that wrapped around her and started tightening until the Maguilty mage was gasping for air.

Flare's eyes were alight with anger while she glared at the pinkette. "He's hurt. Don't go jumping all over him like some hormonal spider monkey." Meredy's eyes started tearing up while she struggled to breathe, and Flare only dropped her after she was sure the message was clear. Another few seconds later.

Jellal froze as the group came to a stop in front of Cobra, his eyes wide as they stared at the woman who Lucy had told him would be meeting with them. Flare Corona. The name had sounded familiar before, but now that he saw her, he remembered just who the redhead was. The lunatic who had nearly killed Lucy in the Games a year prior.

And then there was Cobra, willingly letting another human being hold him up. That was just… odd.

"Fuck you, Tramp Stamp," Cobra sneered.

Jellal sighed and shook his head. "Nice seeing you too, Cobra," he muttered. "Flare, I hope it will be alright for us to camp for the night in your village's forest. It was a long journey, so we'll need to rest before heading out again."

"Oh, um… I-I guess that's alright," she said softly.

A smaller cloaked figure shuffled out from behind Jellal and pushed back the hood, revealing a head of blonde hair and bright honey eyes. "Just alright?" Lucy giggled.

"Blondie!" Flare gasped. She completely forgot about the Poison Slayer leaning on her for support and dashed forward, tackling the Celestial mage to the ground.

"F-Flare, stop that!" Lucy screeched, trying to push the Hair mage away from nuzzling her breasts.

Cobra sent Midnight a grateful nod when the Reflector mage caught him before he could fall. The fact that he was even awake in the first place was just weird. Ever since getting another damn flying carpet to ride around on, Midnight had taken full advantage of sleeping on the thing while they moved from one place to another.

Midnight shifted to the side and helped Cobra take a seat next to him. "Leg's messed up, I heard," he yawned.

"Wrist, too," Cobra said. "I'll be fine in a bit."

"You wanna stay?" Flare asked. "R-Really?"

"Sure," Lucy laughed. "That's why I came out here. I figured it was time I popped by for a visit anyway, and Jellal had no idea how to get here. It was easier to just come along than try to give him directions."

"Because your penmanship is atrocious," Cobra snorted.

"Have fun jerking it with your broken wrist, Cobra," Lucy shot back with a sweet smile.

He rolled his eye, mentally slaughtering everyone around him. Repeatedly.

Cobra didn't even make a peep when Flare invited everyone in Crime Sorciere to lodge in the village. He was too busy trying to figure out why the redhead was by his side during each of those imagined torture sessions, laughing while ripping his guildmates to shreds.

* * *

"S-So, giants exist," Angel said while staring up at the towering men with huge grins as they walked around the village.

"Yep," Flare nodded. "They're going to be setting up a party tonight for you guys."

"Because they're happy to see more of your friends coming around," Lucy grinned, looping an arm around Flare's.

"Oh, but… we're not… um…"

Cobra frowned at the quick glance the redhead sent his way. Just what the hell was that for? Still, he wasn't going to dwell on it. The sooner the night was done, the sooner he could get out of this village stuck in the mountains, in the middle of a fucking desert. And once he was out of there, he wouldn't have to think about the woman whose vacant eyes and disarming smile kept catching his eye every time he turned around.

He wouldn't be trying to figure out why her soul only showed up when she got a damn personality that wasn't just the timid mouse he was constantly seeing.

Thankfully, the night came and went. So did way too much food for even a hoard of Dragon Slayers to eat. And more ale than was really healthy. Then there were all the poisonous plants that he'd been told Flare had gone out to pick just for him to eat. Others that she'd put in jars that would last for at least a week without going bad and withering, for him to take on his trip away from the village.

Somewhere along the way, somehow (he still wasn't sure to this day), he'd found Flare sitting in her room away from the happiness and laughter of her family and Crime Sorciere. Cobra had simply wanted to get away from all the noise, and the only place he was really familiar with was the room he'd stayed in over the time he'd been there.

What he hadn't expected was to find the Hair mage silently crying in the far corner, curled up in a ball. She didn't try to wipe her tears away. She didn't even react when the door opened. Her always vacant eyes were exactly the same as usual, just a little more puffy.

Cobra wanted more than fucking anything to just turn around and leave her to the tears, but he really needed to take a seat and it was way too loud out there with the thundering laughter of giants filling the air.

Instead, he quietly closed the door behind him and walked further into the room. His idiotic feet decided that he was going to sit next to Flare.

"So, your family's an interesting bunch," he said while staring down at the splint around his wrist. "Didn't peg you for a giant, though."

Flare didn't respond. There were no whispers from her soul or anything else. Just more of the steady streams of salty sadness dripping down her cheeks.

Cobra really wasn't one for small talk, though. He didn't try to make people feel better or get to the bottom of their problems. That was more Lucy's thing. Only problem was, the blonde was off in some other part of the village, drunk as a skunk, and having some seriously freaky lacrima sex-talk with the overgrown outlet that was her boyfriend.

" _Mm, that's a good boy, Laxus. Touch yourself just like that for Mistress…"_

Really, Cobra wanted no part in interrupting that. Or hearing it in the first place. If Laxus and Lucy were into that sort of thing, then good on them for finding each other. He sure as hell wasn't going to let any woman tie his ass down and beat him to tears. He'd had enough of that bullshit when he was a kid, and there was no way he'd get his rocks off while it happened.

"So…"

"Leave," Flare whispered. Her gaze didn't shift from the floor. "Just go, okay?"

' _Shouldn't have let myself get used to anyone being around… Family is all I need anyway… The rest of the world is terrifying…'_

"What do you mean?"

"I mean leave."

"No," Cobra frowned. "What do you mean by 'anyone being around'?"

Flare sighed and shook her head. "Blondie said you could hear thoughts," she muttered. "You never said anything I was thinking about though, so I had a hard time believing it."

"I can't hear your soul most times," he finally admitted. And Cobra really hated that fact. There was never a time where his magic had failed him, but it always just came up short where the redhead was concerned.

"Well, it's nothing to worry about," she said. "Just go and enjoy the party."

"Can't. It's too loud and my ears need a break."

"Then I'll go." Flare stood and started to walk away, then smacked away the hand that reached for her without looking back. _'Let me leave. I can't have him see me cry like this.'_

Cobra glared at her back while reaching for her again. And when Flare's hair rippled out of her braids and moved to stop him, he grabbed the strands and pulled her down to the ground. "I don't take kindly to people walking away from me," he whispered.

"Don't pull my hair," Flare snapped.

"Then don't ignore me."

"It's better if I do."

"Why?"

"I can't say."

"Sure you can.

"No, I really can't…"

"Gingerbread, just-"

"Because I don't want you to leave!" Flare finally shouted. Cobra just barely heard her words over the rounds of cheers from the giants. He had no idea why they were cheering, his whole body going painfully rigid as he stared into her bright, coppery eyes.

"You…"

His grip on her hair loosened and he fell back against the wall he hadn't realized he'd shifted away from in the first place.

"I don't want you to go," Flare whispered while glaring at the Poison Slayer over her shoulder. "I had so much fun with you, even though you're a dick wrapped in barbed wire and shoved up my ass sometimes. You were nice to me…"

"I'm not nice to anyone…"

"You talk to me like I'm not crazy or stupid."

"I talk to everyone like they're stupid," Cobra said. "And no one's got a lock on crazy like I do."

"But it's not a good idea for me to think you'll stick around," Flare sniffled. "A-And I always think people are more than they are. You can't hear my soul, so maybe I just don't have one. It's blank, right? Empty, just like me, right?"

' _Please don't leave, Cobra…'_

"Gingerbread," he sighed. "It's not empty."

"See? You gave me a nickname," she cried. "I've never had one before. N-No one's ever…"

' _Nobody ever cared enough to do that. He's so nice to me…'_

"And-"

Cobra leaned forward and sifted his fingers through her hair, bringing the redhead's parted lips against his in a flash. "Shut up," he growled when Flare squeaked and tried to pull away. "Just shut the fuck up and kiss me, Gingerbread."

The fact that she simply melted into him was more than satisfying. The timid little mouse he'd seen more days than not was gone. A fiery, ravenous tongue speared between Cobra's lips as Flare crawled into his lap. He could taste her desire as it burned across his taste buds.

Soft curves glided under the tips of his questing fingers, and Cobra groaned when he felt just how high the slit in her dress really ran. He didn't need to ask if she wanted his hands moving over her. Flare's thighs spreading wider over him, how her breasts pushed further into his chest and her fingers sifted through his hair, let him know that he was doing everything she wanted. And then some.

"C-Cobra…"

He drew back from her lips with a wicked grin, nipping at the swollen bits of flesh and pulling a quivering moan from the woman in his lap. "If you've got time to talk, then you've got time to get my clothes off."

He really should have been ready for her hair to fan out around them. Strands darted between their bodies as he forced their lips together again, pulling at the fastenings on his shirt and pants faster than he could have managed even without a broken wrist.

' _Don't leave me, Cobra…'_

His shirt was pulled open and pushed down his arms along with his jacket. Cobra groaned as her fingers danced over his skin. Each quick brush brought him closer to laying the redhaired beauty out on her back. He wanted her, and Cobra wasn't going to deny himself any longer.

The perfect mix of crazy and silly and shy. Just the kind of woman to get his blood boiling from anger while making him hard enough to fuck a whole pile of diamonds into submission. He'd been hoping to get out of the village before he simply lost control and took Flare, bent her over a table and had his way with her while she cried out his name in ecstasy.

But he was still there, and she was just so desperate for him. Desperate to feel some sort of connection to another person.

His hand lifted from beneath her dress, from the supple swell of her perfectly rounded ass, to pull at the tie holding it all together just behind her neck. Twin crimson strings fell down onto his shoulders, and he drew back just enough to nearly rip the fabric while sending his lips on a quick, breathless path down to one pale pink bud.

"O-Oh, Cobra!"

His teeth scraped roughly over her, and he gave the writhing sex kitten a harsh nip. "I said, get my clothes off," he growled against her. "I want you."

"A-And what if I-I don't?"

"Then you wouldn't be drenching my pants with your snatch," he rasped. "Come on…" His tongue circled her puckering nipple in faster circles that he could hear were sending Flare into a breathless fog. His injured wrist lifted into her line of sight when Flare's head tipped back. "I'm hurt, Gingerbread. I can't fuck you if I can't get my pants off."

Flare's soft laugh became another sharp cry of pained pleasure as he bit into her breast again. She'd never known a man to be so vicious while still causing her core to clench with anticipation. But she wanted it, even if she had to keep reminding herself that this wasn't going to happen again. And that he wasn't going to stick around just because she didn't want him to leave.

If anything, Flare could at least have a damn good memory of the time she'd happened to save the Poison Slayer's life.

Her hair wrapped around his splinted wrist and she carefully pulled Cobra down on top of her, keeping his injury away from the floor. The sudden chill from the floor was burned away as his lips peppered her heaving chest with surprisingly tender kisses. No man had ever been like this with her. It was either one way or the other. Dominating and bordering on cruel, or moving slowly and treating her like glass.

But Cobra wasn't like that. His free hand plucked and pulled at her nipple along with that devilish mouth of his. He switched between harsh bites and soothing, gentle kisses.

"Pants," Cobra moaned against her sweat-slicked chest.

"R-Right…" Flare sent her hair down to finish removing his pants, then lifted her hips to pull her dress down the rest of the way. She didn't wear panties, so that was at least one thing she didn't have to worry about getting off.

And she knew, based on the fact that she'd had to undress and bathe him once before, Cobra didn't wear underwear.

It just meant she was that much closer to having him filling her. _'Sweet Flame, I need it…'_ Seconds after that thought filtered through her already scattered brain, Flare cried out as his full length ground against her already dripping center.

Her fingers sifted through his hair to pull him closer, and then she felt his ears. Without a thought on just what he might do, Flare gently pinched the pointed tips, rolling them between her fingers.

She'd never expected a loud moan to come barreling past his lips. Or for Cobra to surge forward and seat himself deeply within her.

"Touch my ears," he panted over Flare's quivering mewls. "And I won't be gentle… Fuck, that's good…" His head lifted to look down into her widened eyes, finding them no longer vacant but alive. Burning. He couldn't tell what he liked better though.

The way her core clenched around him. Her hands in his hair and touching his ears. This look in her eyes that spoke of a hidden succubus waiting to suck out his fucking soul.

He withdrew and pushed back in slowly. So slowly he could feel Flare's body trembling as she reached her limit on patience. But he wanted her to be patient. Because Cobra was fucking her the way he wanted. Oh, she was going to be crying out his name, there was no doubt about that for the Poison Slayer. He was just going to make sure it happened on his own terms.

"C-Cobra, please," Flare whimpered.

"Please what?" he groaned, pressing his lips to hers briefly with a small smirk. "What does little Gingerbread want?"

"Don't tease me." She shivered as his gleaming indigo eye glared down at her. It sent a shot of liquid fire right to her sex just as his hips snapped forward once again.

And then he just didn't move. He stayed nestled deep within her, filling her to the point of being nearly uncomfortable. She knew he could see her desperation. Didn't he understand? She wanted him to move, to do _something_ that would help her ease the ache between her legs.

But if he wasn't going to do anything, then Flare just had to do it herself. Her hips shifted, and it seemed like that was just what the Poison Slayer was waiting for. Flare's cry of pain as his fingers pinched her nipple harder than before, was muffled as his lips covered hers. All at once her body was overwhelmed with sensation. Cobra moved within her at a suddenly relentless pace.

Cobra groaned as her legs locked around his pistoning hips and pinched even harder.

"C-Cobra, no," Flare whimpered. "St-Stop… hurting m-me…"

' _Don't stop! Feels so good!'_

He grinned down at the tears dotting her long lashes. "Stop, huh?" he growled. He let go of her nipple, sucking in a shaky breath as Flare cried out again when he pulled out completely. His cock ached to be back inside of her. She was too warm, too inviting. This was a torture for himself, but he wanted something from the Hair mage, and he knew that there was only one way he could get it.

He wanted her begging for every dark, delicious thing he could do to her body. And if the pain in his damn wrist wasn't already trying to kill his hard on, he would have been much more mobile in bringing her to the brink of insanity.

Flare's eyes went wide as she felt his flared head trailing so dangerously close to her entrance, sliding over her slit, circling her sensitive bundle. Just when she thought he would show mercy and take her again, just as he would barely dip into her weeping sex, Cobra pulled back. She could feel his steady breaths heating her lips. And that damn smug smirk was sitting on his thin lips.

It was driving her insane.

"Cobra, pl - Ah!" Her head tipped back as he filled her in one quick snap of his hips.

"You were saying?" he whispered.

But Flare couldn't find the words anymore. As the first of her tears broke past her lashes, she wanted to hate him for making her like this.

"So grumpy," he growled against her lips.

"You were the one itching to get inside me," she spat bitterly. "So do something about it instead of just being a manipulative asshole!"

"But you like it," he rasped as his hips rolled. "I can hear your soul, beautiful."

Flare's reply was cut off as his hand slid gently up her body until those long, tanned fingers dipped between the loose strands of her hair. No one ever touched her hair, but Cobra had done it several times already.

"I'll be nice though," Cobra chuckled. His lips ghosted across her cheek and his tongue glided over the shell of her ear.

"C-Cobra…"

"Touch me with this," he whispered, his fingers brushing through the fiery strands again. "Everywhere. If you want me to play nice, you'll have to make me."

"M-My hair?" Flare gasped at the low groan that spilled from the Poison Slayer. Slowly, her hair lifted from the floor and started wrapping itself around his body. Calves, thighs, arms, throat, chest. More sections brushed lightly over his back, slithered between his shoulder blades.

And with each timid pass of the ruby locks over his flesh, Flare felt more than heard the bone-shaking moans that escaped Cobra as he set into a steady rhythm.

"Sh-Shit," Cobra hissed. He didn't mind it one bit that he was being tied up like this. He _wanted_ Flare's hair surrounding him. Touching him. Everywhere, all at once. "F-Fuck… Rub it harder, Gingerbread."

Flare lifted his head so she could look into his eye clouded with lust, a deep hazy indigo. "No more teasing me," she whispered.

"N-No more teasing," Cobra nodded.

"Stay with me tonight."

Cobra wanted to say no, but then he felt her hair tightening around his limbs, how it warmed just a little. The gentle flush across her cheeks drew him closer before her hands did, until he was tenderly pressing his lips to hers.

"Stay tonight," Flare whispered. "Please, Cobra."

And somewhere in his lust-hazed mind, he knew it was a bad idea. But he couldn't tell her no. So he simply nodded again. "I'll stay," he whispered breathlessly. His eye rolled back as Flare pulled on the tips of his ears, sending hot white streaks of pleasure rocketing through him.

"Oh god… Cobra!"

"What'd I tell you about my fucking ears?" he growled. His hips were moving before he even knew what was happening. The violent slapping of skin and sudden splashes of colors dancing in Flare's soul were making him blind to everything else around them.

And all he could feel was her hair. Stroking him, tightening around his body. Her fingers clutching to his back as she screamed his name. Then her arms winding around his neck as she was lifted into his lap. Another tug on his ears. Her voice crackling on moans and pleas for more, and her breasts bouncing wildly.

Her breathing changed, and his eye finally came into focus only to see thick plumes of crimson gas in the air around them.

Cobra's eye widened in horror as Flare pushed him down onto the ground and started to move even faster. "W-Wait!"

"Cobra," Flare moaned. Her head tipped back and her eyes slid closed to simply bask in the perfection that she'd been gifted with. She sucked in a deep breath, completely unaware of the noxious gas filling her lungs. And all at once, the redhead felt like she couldn't breathe. As though someone had turned on a heater and placed it right against her flesh.

A harsh sweat broke out across her skin, but her hair tightened on Cobra's body when he tried to push her off of him.

' _Feels so good… Tastes… Oh god, what's happening to me? I want more…'_

Flare's eyes slid open, half-lidded and pooling with desire, to find the source of her sudden spike in arousal drifting from between Cobra's lips. She shot down and slammed her lips over his, harshly nipping at him. When he didn't try to kiss her back, she started playing dirty. Her hips rolled faster and her fingers brushed over his ears.

Still, he didn't kiss her. She couldn't tell that he was freaked the hell out by her eating his poison and not just dropping dead right there. That she'd willingly taken more of it into herself.

The coil wound tighter within Flare, her mind awash in pleasure. Her lips trailed over to the golden hoop piercing his ear and she let out a low, guttural moan while sucking it into her mouth.

Cobra cried out in surprise as his hips surged in response. His one weakness. His fucking ears. And she'd figured out way too quickly that she could bend him to her every whim if those were being teased. His uninjured arm moved with her hair still wrapped around it to wind across her back. "F-Fuck, don't stop!"

He didn't care that she was pouring sweat, or that he could feel his own pooling between his back and the floor. Teeth bared, Cobra poured every last bit of power he had into sending the redhead spiralling into bliss.

Her moans drifted right into his ear, vibrating the tender flesh and pulling each and every muscle in his body taut with need.

Another large cloud of poison escaped Cobra's lips, unnoticed. And finally, when he was sure he couldn't hold back any longer, Cobra did the only thing that came to mind to throw her over the edge with him.

Flare screamed her lover's name as his teeth sunk into her shoulder, piercing the skin and sending her soaring high into the clouds just as searing heat spilled into her sex. She couldn't take anything else. Not the fire roaring through her veins or the weightlessness left in the wake of an earth-shattering climax.

Quivering moans left her, and she whimpered when his jaw finally unlocked from her shoulder.

Cobra fought to catch his breath while gently sucking on the bleeding wound he'd given the woman in his arms. It really didn't help when her hair finally loosened and started gently trailing over his skin. Everywhere. It was fucking heaven feeling each strand on him like this.

Still, he couldn't get enough of touching her. Smelling that cinnamon-ember scent that clung to her skin. His poison in the air had disappeared, but some of it was still latched onto her. God, he hated to admit that he was enjoying that addition to the fiery vixen. "Damn," he rasped.

Flare hummed and slowly lifted her hips while pressing a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. She licked at Cobra's lips and gave him a quick kiss before moving lower. His chin, throat, every inch of his chest that she hadn't gotten a chance to really admire with more than just her fingers.

The thin trail of maroon hairs leading down from his navel. She hadn't realized it before, but the Poison Dragon Slayer was cut like a god. And she'd been lucky enough to have his body against hers. His thin, lickable hips - and, oh did she lick them now that she had the chance - between her legs. Her hair moved of its own accord to brush across the hair on his legs, fiery red against deep crimson.

Cobra just couldn't find it in himself to stop her from doing whatever she pleased with him right then. And he was definitely rewarded when her gaze lifted just as her soft lips surrounded his softened member. His limbs just felt too heavy to do a damn thing aside from pulling a lock of her hair between his fingers.

Flare smiled while sucking the evidence of their joining from Cobra, a soft flush lighting her cheeks. The way his lips curled into a lazy grin had her happy as a clam. No one ever really gave her that look before. Not even after a romp in the sack.

Cobra chuckled when the redhaired beauty kissed her way back up to his lips. And even though he could taste his release, he just didn't care all that much as her tongue curled around his.

"You'll really stay tonight?" Flare whispered.

"I said I would." Cobra brushed his nose against hers as she glanced away bashfully. "I'm a man of my word, Gingerbread."

"Even though you're an ex-criminal?"

"I killed people," he smirked. "Never lied about it." The fact that she let out a quiet laugh instead of really reacting to the admission that he'd been a murderer was a bit of a surprise. Most people tended to give a fair number of shits about things like that.

"Did you want to go back out there?" she whispered.

Cobra shook his head and wound an arm about her waist. "It's too loud out there. And I'm feeling relatively lazy right about now."

"You're an odd duck," Flare giggled.

"Probably. But I have a feeling you are too."

"I guess," she smiled. She looked into his eye as he pulled her in for another slow, gentle kiss. Flare really didn't think she'd ever be able to wrap her head around the man whose arms were holding her just a little tighter than before. Even as they moved to the futon that both had completely forgotten was there, not bothering to get dressed again, she just couldn't understand Cobra. But really, she figured it was for the best if she didn't try to understand him. He would be gone soon, anyway.

"Goodnight, Cobra," she yawned.

"Mm, don't braid your hair again."

Flare frowned and lifted her head from his chest. "What?"

"I like your hair," he smirked. "So let it free tonight."

She blushed again and laid her head back down, then loosened her hair from the single braid she always put it in before going to sleep. The strands fanned out across the bedding and both of their bodies, and Flare smiled when she heard Cobra let out a contented sigh as his fingers sifted through it.

Her eyes closed as his lips puckered on her scalp.

"Sweet dreams, Gingerbread," Cobra whispered.

* * *

"Flare? Hey, are you in here?"

Lucy rounded the corner and made her way through the open doorway that she knew led to Flare's home in Sun Village. Her eyes widened when she saw the Hair mage curled up on her futon with only a blanket covering her naked body, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks as she stared at nothing.

"Flare, what's wrong?"

She said nothing as Lucy rushed across the room and brushed her hair from her eyes.

"Flare… what's the matter?" Lucy asked gently.

But what could she say? That she'd woken up that morning just before sun came up, like always, and found herself alone? That she'd wanted to watch the sun rising with Cobra before he left with his guild? But he wasn't there.

The place he'd slept was cold, as though he'd waited for her to fall asleep, then left.

And maybe that was the case. Maybe he'd watched her lose consciousness and then had slipped out of her grasp to get dressed. He'd left before she could even tell him goodbye. Without a single word.

Without just one more kiss, even though she was sure he was never going to think of her again now that he was gone. And while it made sense for him to just cut ties with her like this, to make it easier than an awkward hug and her watching him walk away, it didn't hurt any less. Her chest felt like it had been stepped on by a giant. Not even her hair could warm the chill that had crept into her bones without him there. Each breath felt like a painful reminder of the loneliness that she was sure was her lot in life.

Large brown eyes filled her vision as Lucy laid down next to her on the floor. And Flare was sure, as a crackling sob broke past her lips once Lucy's slender arms wrapped around her, that even the blonde could hear her heart breaking.

She wasn't supposed to care about Cobra. The Poison Slayer wasn't supposed to mean anything to her. This wasn't supposed to _hurt_.

"Aw, Flare… It's okay," Lucy whispered.

"H-He left… He didn't… even s-say goodbye…"

Lucy's eyes closed as she held the Hair mage closer, simply letting her tears soak into the fabric of her shirt. "Flare…"

"Wh-Why does everyone leave m-me?"

"I won't leave-"

"You will," she sobbed. "You h-have to go back home, and…"

"But we'll still be friends," Lucy said gently. "And you're always welcome to come visit. And I'll try to visit you more often, too."

It just wasn't the same, but Flare at least appreciated the effort the blonde was making. At least this one thing wasn't different. No matter how scary the world had been, she still had the friend she'd made in Lucy.

Still… Flare wished the arms around her were darker, stronger. She wished that it wasn't the Celestial mage lying next to her, but Cobra.

She knew that was never going to happen again, so Flare just let herself do what felt right. She cried until her throat was raw and her eyes were nearly closed from how puffy they were. And maybe, when she was done crying, Flare wouldn't care about the Poison Slayer being gone.

She wasn't too optimistic about that, though.


	2. Out of Sight

**A/N: Sorry this took so long. I've had a good portion of the chapter written for about a month, but then school got in the way. And then I needed to add a scene to tie it all together, and the outline that I'd made just took the wind out of my sails. Sometimes outlining shit is the devil.**

 **I'm posting this with minimal proofing. It's almost 3 in the morning here and I'm exhausted. But it's also been a few months since this was updated, so I think you guys deserve it!**

 **I can promise you at _least_ one more chapter after this one. I already have plans for that, but I don't know where it'll take me.**

* * *

 _ **Out of Sight**_

* * *

Soft strands of ember drifted in waves through the black air, lighting his world anew. He could smell her, taste her laugh on the wind, but he couldn't see her. Not her pale face or vacant eyes. He could hear her soul as it called to him, soft whimpers that clawed for his attention. All he could see was her hair. The gentle light seeping from within it. He tried to find the source, but there was no telling where one section started and another ended as they knotted in the air around him. Slowly surrounded him. Cradled him.

But Cobra wanted this. He ached to feel her warmth again. To taste her cinnamon lips and wrap his arms around her. Just like he'd done the last time they'd been together. The hair tightened until there was no darkness in the sphere. Only the soft glow of her magic that warmed him from within.

" _Cobra…"_

Her voice was hardly a whisper, but he wanted to hear it again. Louder. Crying out his name. Her laughter. The venom in her words when she was pissed. He wanted it all.

" _Cobra… come back…"_

He reached forward, scowling at the heavy, rusted chains around his wrists that held him back from touching her hair. He pushed again and again, refusing to acknowledge the bite of metal into his wrists, or how his flesh split from the friction.

" _Cobra…"_

"Damnit," he growled. "Let me go."

The Poison Slayer glared down at the shackles, whimpering at the sight that laid before him. Once he saw it, there was no way to ignore how his suddenly young, bony wrists and dirt-smeared fingers looked covered in blood. _His_ blood. He felt the chains weighing his frail body down, pulling him further from the light of her hair. Further from her.

" _Cobra… come back… Don't leave me…"_

"I-I don't want to," he whimpered. "Please! Let me go!"

He wanted her. He _needed_ her to take away the darkness and the familiar feminine voice that joined with Flare's in the air around him, screeching and full of fear. Just like he remembered.

 _"Please! I need to help my son!"_

"M-Mama?" Fire burned in his wrists and the sudden lash of a whip across his bare back had Cobra crying out in fear. He couldn't go back here. Not back to this place. Not again. "Flare," he cried, roaring as the whip came down on him again. Her hair dimmed and loosened its protective hold around him. "F-Flare, help! Help me!"

" _... Cobra…"_

* * *

Cobra woke with a snarl, sitting up from his bedroll and sending his fist sailing toward the pale mage hovering over him. Midnight dodged it easily, showing just how spooked the Poison Slayer was that he couldn't even land the hit.

"You're having nightmares," Midnight said. It wasn't a question, just an observation, and an easy one to make. Cobra never made noise in his sleep, unless he was having a nightmare. He never laid down, instead choosing to sleep sitting with his back against something, unless he was caught in thoughts of the past.

"Fuck off." Cobra couldn't handle the questions. Not right then. Not when all he could see when he closed his eye and brought trembling hands to his head was that vibrant burnished hair. And just behind it, he could still picture his mother being beaten to death by a guard for trying to help clean him up.

"Cobra, what's happening?" Midnight whispered, staring at the sweat pouring down his friend's throat, how much had soaked into his shirt. When Cobra removed the sopping fabric without a thought, Midnight nearly retched. Why was he so thin? All skin and bones beneath his clothes. And no one had known because Cobra was adamant about remaining clothed at all times since they'd found him in Sun Village.

"Nothing." He could still hear her screaming at the guards in the Tower, begging them to let her help her child.

"Don't lie to me." Midnight's eyes narrowed when he watched the Poison Slayer rub at his scarred wrists. "Were you dreaming about the Tower?"

"I said to fuck off," Cobra growled. He could practically feel Flare's hair teasing his senses as her soul whispered to him again. "I'm not warning you again, Midnight."

"Cobra, when was the last time you ate?" Midnight asked carefully.

" _Erik, stay back! I'll be alright, dear…" He blinked and saw her lifeless indigo eyes staring at him, her split lip and bruised face. Long brown tresses matted with her blood from the baton that had just cracked her skull open._

"M-Midnight, get the hell away from me," Cobra whimpered. "Please, man… N-Not right now, okay?"

' _... miss him… crying so much… hate this… Cobra…'_

He could hear her again. They were so far from Sun Village, but he could still hear Flare's soul. Calling for him, begging him to return. Every day and night, he fought to ignore her song. And with each step he took from her, it only hurt all the more.

' _... Co… Cobra… bra…'_

" _Erik, sta-"_

' _Cobra, Co-'_

" _-y back!"_

' _-bra, Cobra… Co-'_

" _It'll be alright, dear…"_

' _-bra!'_

" _Please, don't hurt him!"_

' _Cobra!'_

" _I love you, Erik… My sweet little boy…"_

 _'COBRA!'_

Midnight's crimson eyes widened as Cobra covered his pointed ears and curled in on himself. He instantly recognized the quick cadence of barely-breathing, knew all too well the sight of bony shoulders hunched and quivering. "Angel!" he shouted while shuffling across the short distance and wrapping his arms around Cobra. "Angel, code black!"

The sound of a spoon clacking against a metal bowl as it crashed to the forest floor preceded the once-Celestial mage scrambling through the flap of Cobra's tent. "What happened?" she hissed. "Midnight, what did you do?!"

"I didn't do anything!" he spat. His grip tightened around the Poison Slayer once Cobra started trying to wriggle away. "Angel-"

"M-Make it stop," Cobra sniffled. "Stop hearing it… S-Stop hearing it…"

Meredy's head poked into the tent as Angel moved closer, her eyes widening at the sight of the tanned mage in such a state. "Is he…"

" _My precious little boy," she sighed as they curled together for warmth._

 _She pushed against the guards keeping them apart, tears streaming down her ruddy cheeks. "Erik, stay back! It'll be alright…"_

"M-Mama, no," Cobra cried. "D-Don't hurt her. Don't… S-Stop… Leave her…"

' _... miss you, Cobra,'_ Flare's soul sighed in the distance.

He shook his head, gripping his hair tighter than before. "Stop hearing it… stop… stop…"

' _Oh my god, what's happening to Cobra?!'_

Meredy was pulled away from the tent and instantly replaced with Jellal's calculating eyes and concerned frown. "What's code black?"

"Shh," Angel whispered as her fingers carded through the Poison Slayer's hair. She pulled him into her arms while Midnight grabbed a section of his own black hair and pressed it into Cobra's palm. "There you go. Just the hair, right?"

" _Meredy, it's best if you stay out here with us,"_ Richard said outside the tent, his low voice ricocheting between Cobra's ears.

" _I'm worried about him, Richard,"_ she said. The way her soul warbled with fear made Cobra's head pound. _"You didn't see him in there. And… I-I care about him."_

" _Like a brother,"_ Sawyer said softly. The distant growls that still echoed in his soul made Cobra feel like someone had taken a pickaxe to his brain. _"We know, but it's best for Angel and Midnight to help him like this. It's okay…"_

" _B-But…"_

Cobra continued mumbling to himself as hot tears lashed down his cheek. Jellal's frown deepened when he noticed Cobra's fingers quickly twisting Midnight's hair one way and another between them, coiling them around one digit, starting all over again. How his knees drew up into his chest as though he was a scared child stuck in a nightmare.

" _Mama, I love your hair…"_

" _You can play with it whenever you want, Erik," she whispered. "But we have to stay quiet now." She smiled down at him, her face barely visible in the thin shaft of moonlight drifting in from the high window of their cell. 'My precious boy,' she thought, 'He's always so gentle.'_

"It's alright," Angel whispered as she held the sobbing Slayer in her arms. Slowly, her gaze shifted toward Jellal while Midnight grabbed a blanket and carefully wrapped it around Cobra.

"You can play with my hair whenever you want, Erik," Midnight said, his voice soft and tender. This was the only time anyone was allowed to call him by his birth name. The reason he hated when anyone said it otherwise - especially Jellal. Midnight knew only Cobra's mother had called him by name, the name she'd given him when she managed to survive birthing him in her cell. He gently grabbed Cobra's free hand, lacing their fingers together. "Whenever you need to."

"What's going on here?" Jellal asked, though he kept his voice quiet. They'd all heard Cobra whimpering through the night and a good portion of the morning. No one had told him why only Midnight was allowed to go into the Poison Slayer's tent to wake him, though. And he'd thought better than to bring it up, just in case it was a taboo subject.

This had never happened though. He'd never known any of the former Oracion Seis members to act like _this_.

' _Erik doesn't look too good… has he been eating at all? He's so skinny… I should have noticed something was off sooner… I need to be more aware of what they're going through, so I can actually help…'_

"Cobra's…" Angel paused, unsure of how to put it. How was she supposed to explain just what was wrong with him? Everyone but Jellal and Meredy knew. Racer and Richard always kept their distance when he was like this, because they were too domineering. They reminded Cobra too much of the guards who'd killed his mother, because they were men. And she was sure, had it not been Cobra going through this, he would have made some snide remark about Midnight being feminine enough to pass for a woman. "He…"

" _Please," his mother cried to the other prisoners holding her back, "They took my little boy! I-I'll take his punishment! H-He's just so hungry! Please, don't whip my son!"_

"Shit!" Midnight grabbed Cobra's discarded shirt and pressed the damp, sweaty fabric to the Poison Slayer's bleeding nose. "Cobra, you have to focus, okay? Focus on…" Whose soul could he use to anchor the Slayer? Not Jellal. He was too guilt-ridden. The Seis each had their own demons that Cobra constantly tried to avoid.

He hadn't had a nosebleed like this in so long, though. Not since they'd broken out of prison the first time. Having the magic-cancelling cuffs removed and hearing so many souls at once had overwhelmed Cobra to the point that they'd had to drag him away from the prison, barely conscious with the blood from his nose covered by his ratty shirt, then Racer's as more continued to pour.

"Jellal, grab that lacrima and call Fairy Tail!" Angel shouted.

"Fairy Tail?"

"Just do it!" she snapped. She watched him fumble with the little orb, sending his magic into it, the gentle pulse of light as it tried to connect.

"Ah, Jellal," Makarov said, smiling. "How can I help you today?"

"S-Stop," Cobra whimpered, not seeing anyone around him, trying to only feel the hair between his fingers, the warmth around his shoulders that he knew was a blanket. Thin, tender arms he recognized as Angel's. He didn't want to hear anything. Not anymore.

"Focus, Cobra," Midnight whispered. "It's okay. We're right here."

"Uh," Jellal muttered. "I'm not sure…" Makarov frowned, and he looked toward Angel once again while kneeling and moving to her side so the older guild master could see her face.

"Please tell me Cubellios is around," she said quickly.

"Who?"

"Hang up and call Mira," Angel hissed to Jellal. "I need to talk to Kinana. Now!" She waited as Jellal apologized to Makarov and disconnected, then made the call to Mira's lacrima down at the bar.

"Jellal-"

"Mira, I need to speak with Kinana," he said quickly. "I don't know why, but it's an emergency."

Angel looked at Midnight as Kinana's face filled the screen. "Forty miles from them," she said, quickly calculating their distance from the light guild. "Can he do that like this?"

Cobra couldn't breathe. Every short huff he pulled in reeked of sweat and blood. In his mind, it was the Tower all over again. The pain, the wailing souls. His mother crying out to him, and the nightmares he still had about being so close to saving her - how he finally had the magic to do something about her being killed, only to fail miserably and watch her die all over again.

Midnight never took his eyes from Cobra, especially not when the Poison Slayer started panicking further and began gasping for air. "I hope so. Angel, do it."

She nodded, turning her attention to the lacrima. "Cubellios, I need you to call Cobra."

"What's going on? Is he alright?"

Angel nodded to Jellal, watching worriedly as he turned the lacrima so Kinana could see her old friend. How he trembled, curled up in her arms, how small and frail he looked right then. At the barmaid's sharp gasp, she said, "He needs something calm now. Familiar. You're the closest he's got to her, Cubellios."

"Cobra, you have to breathe," Midnight whispered. "Find Cubellios, okay? She'll help you. Just find Cubellios."

"C-Cu," he gasped. His eye stayed tightly clenched, but he'd caught what Midnight had told him. Find Cubellios. Find her soul, instead of focusing on the memories crashing through him. She'd been just like his mother, after he'd lost the woman. His mother, sister, best friend, and daughter all wrapped in one.

" _I'm here, Erik… I'm here. Listen to my voice… Listen… Touch Macbeth's hair, Erik. Hear me… You're safe now."_

"Touch my hair," Midnight whispered. He reached down and fisted Cobra's quaking hand around the lock he held. "Soft, clean. It's alright now."

Angel smiled when Cobra let out a great huff of air after several breathless moments for everyone in the tent, collapsing in her arms and leaning heavily against her. He was still panting, his nose still bleeding, still trembling, but he was starting to calm down. "There we go," she sighed. "We just needed Cubellios, isn't that right?"

Cobra shivered, unaware of the eyes watching him as he starting tumbling into unconsciousness. "F-Flare…"

The tent was silent and still for several moments, with everyone watching Cobra and unable to utter a word.

"Did he…" Angel whispered.

"This is strange," Midnight nodded.

"Kinana," Jellal sighed. "Thank you for… whatever it was you did. I hope Cobra will be alright now, but we'll let you know if we need your help again."

"Y-Yeah," she whispered. As the line cut off, Kinana kept her gaze on the darkened orb. Worry curled in her gut, but she kept it separate from the gentle lullaby thrumming in her soul and calling out to Cobra through the bond they shared from childhood. She leaned back against a nearby crate in the store room beneath the guild, her head shooting up when quick footsteps came rushing toward her.

"Kinana, is everything alright? Mira said…" Lucy paused as she rounded the corner and found the purple-haired barmaid kneeling on the floor with tears on her lashes. "Kinana?"

She smiled as soon as her gaze locked onto the familiar, gentle honey eyes of the guild's Celestial mage. She couldn't find her voice for several moments, but it was all there for her to hear through the connection she had to Cobra's soul. He'd always called out to her, a gentle ping to make sure she was still there, where she would call back unconsciously.

But she'd heard something new when he lost his will to stay awake. More than just a name from his lips. It was the call of his soul to another, in a way that she'd always hoped he would find.

"L-Lucy, could you help me with something?" Kinana sniffled. "I need to talk to someone."

"Sure," the blonde answered in an instant, sitting next to her on the floor. "How can I help?"

"I need to get in touch with Flare," Kinana whispered. "It's important."

* * *

"... Who are you?"

Kinana smiled at the suspicious frown greeting her from the woman on the lacrima. She remembered all too well just what Flare had been like during the Games, and had encountered the Hair mage only a small handful of times in passing since then. She looked exactly as Kinana remembered, only much more subdued. And maybe just a little sad.

"My name is Kinana," she said. "I'm a friend of Lucy's."

"Oh!" Flare brightened up at that. "How's Blondie doing?"

"Good," Kinana laughed, then her smile faded a little bit. "But I'm actually calling you about Cobra." Flare went oddly still, to the point that Kinana wondered if the connection was poor and the image had frozen in place. She nearly jumped when the redhead spoke again.

"You tell that asshole I hope he dies in a fire."

Well, that had definitely been unexpected. When Lucy had wanted to know why Kinana needed help getting in contact with Flare, she'd been as vague as possible with the blonde. Luckily, saying it was personal was enough for Lucy to let the matter drop.

But the sudden fire raging in Flare's eyes had Kinana rethinking how she needed to approach this with the redhead. Clearly Cobra had left on some not-so-great terms.

"And while you're at it, you can go fuck yourself," Flare spat. "I don't want anything to do with that piece of shit and-"

Kinana blinked, wide-eyed as she sat in the storeroom and thankful that Lucy had volunteered to cover her shift at the bar while she made the call. Mira had already been back to check on her, and she'd told the woman that she needed some time to herself. So, Kinana simply let Flare rant and fume as much as she wanted, ignoring every vile, hate-filled word that left her.

"- just drops into my life and poof! I hate him! He's an egotistical fucknugget with a spiked dildo up his ass all the time, and-"

Finally, Kinana couldn't stop herself from giggling. That cut Flare off in an instant and had the Hair mage glaring at her through the orb. "I'm sorry," she laughed, "You just remind me of him like this."

"What?" Flare hissed.

"He does that when he's hurting," she sighed, lowering her gaze. "He's mean and hateful and lashes out at everyone so they'll just leave him alone."

Flare's eyes were wide, confused. After a moment, she pursed her lips in agitation. "Why are you calling me?"

Kinana sighed softly, her gaze darting across the storeroom to make sure she was alone. "I got a call from Crime Sorciere," she finally said. "Cobra's… He's not doing too well. He looked really sick and…" She paused to take a steadying breath. "He was having a panic attack. They needed me to help calm him down again."

Suddenly, Flare's eyes were vacant, unreadable. "I should have known he wasn't single," she said flatly. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on trying to take him from you."

"Wh-What?" Kinana gasped. "Oh god, no! That's not it!" When Flare stared at her, her let out another heavy breath. This would be so much easier if Cobra had told her about Flare to begin with, more than the fact that she'd saved his life when Jellal chucked him (accidentally) across the country. Like what was really going on between them, or why he'd decided to leave Sun Village in the first place if he cared about the woman.

"When I was little," Kinana said softly, "I was cursed and turned into a snake. And Erik saved me-"

"Erik?" Flare frowned.

"Cobra."

"Oh… I didn't know that was his name."

"Not many people do," Kinana said with what she hoped was an encouraging smile. One that fell when she returned to her story. "But, I think he found me a day or two before the guards killed his mother. Right in front of him."

"Wh-What?"

She nodded slowly. "He was in a place called the Tower of Heaven. People were kept there as slaves. His mother was a slave and she got pregnant from one of the guards… then had Erik there. And for a long time before we met, he was there with her, forced to work for them." Thinking about that dark time in her life, and trying to clear the foggy edges of the few memories she'd regained over the years, always made her heart sink.

"But eventually he and a few other kids were taken away from the Tower, and they joined a dark guild under a man named Brain. The Oracion Seis." As Kinana continued telling Flare about how she'd stayed with Erik as he gained his new name, Cobra, and things here and there over the years, she saw the woman's face become so expressive, so utterly enraptured in the tale she told.

"He's the only family I had before I became human again," she said. "And when I first changed back, I couldn't remember anything about him, but Erik's always been like a brother to me. Sometimes like a father, like when I was a snake and he took care of me; other times he was like a son, when I'd curl around him and let him cry on my scales after we were out of the Tower. But he'll only _ever_ be the best friend I've ever had, Flare."

"That's… why he has those scars?" Flare whispered after letting everything sink in. "He used to be a slave?"

Kinana nodded. "It takes a lot for him to trust people, and I want _you_ to know that when I was helping him a little while ago… Well, sometimes I can hear parts of his soul when I do that - call out to his magic with my soul. And you're there."

"... Huh?"

"You're in his soul, Flare." Kinana smiled at the redhead's confusion. "He hasn't forgotten you or anything like that. In fact, I think Erik's a bit of a martyr, even though no one ever sees it. Because he… well, I think he wants to be with you, but…"

"So, what's stopping him?" Flare asked, her gaze lowered.

"Cobra," she sighed. "Sometimes, it's like he has two people warring in his head. Who he really is, and who he thinks he needs to be. Sometimes they're the same, but Erik and Cobra have a whole lot of differences."

"I know what you mean," Flare whispered after a long pause. "I know how that feels."

"Do you?"

"There are times when he can't hear my soul," she said, slowly looking back to the lacrima. "He told me that. I don't know when he can or can't, but sometimes… It's like… There's the Flare from Raven Tail still in me, what Ivan made me into. But then there's just _me_ , Flare from Sun Village. And I… I don't want to be from Raven Tail anymore, but it comes out and it's like… it's not me talking anymore, but it still is. Because _that_ me wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind, or what people thought about her. _That_ me was strong and brave and could take anyone down."

"What about _this_ you?"

"The world's a scary place," she said with a shy smile. " _This_ me is just…" She gave Kinana a helpless shrug. "I don't know. Not enough, I guess."

An understanding smile curled Kinana's lips at that. That was more familiar an expression to her than anyone knew. It reminded her of what Erik had confided in her when they'd finally reconnected after he joined Crime Sorciere.

#

" _Cu," he whispered, his head lying on her lap as they rested in the clearing behind Fairy Tail and gazed up at the stars, "I'm scared of the world."_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _There's so much pain. I've caused so much pain, and I've enjoyed it. But hearing it now makes me sick sometimes. Sometimes I wish I was back in the Tower where I knew the rules and it was easy…"_

" _Erik, they killed people in that place. You were a slave there."_

" _But at least I knew my damn place there," he sighed, curling into her stomach and sighing as her fingers brushed through his hair. "It was secluded and there weren't so many souls trying wriggle into my head. Sometimes I wonder… if that's why I'm batshit fucking crazy now… All these voices in my head."_

 _She smiled and twirled a lock of his soft, crimson hair around her fingers, watching his eye close and a slow smirk twitch at the corners of his lips. "Erik and Cobra, right?" she whispered._

" _Yeah, Cu," he sighed._

#

"Then I think you and Erik have a whole lot more in common than you'd thought before. This you and Erik… And _that_ you and Cobra."

"... You really think that?"

"I do," Kinana giggled. "So… Would it be alright if he called you?"

"Did he… Did he ask to call me?"

"Not yet. I know he'll call me when he's feeling a little better. He knows I worry about him. But, if you say it's okay for him to call you, then I'll let him know that he _should_."

"... Oh."

"Flare, you have to understand. He's proud and _very_ stubborn. If he's trying to keep his distance for some reason, it's not because of you. It's because he thinks he has to."

"I… I don't want him to, though," Flare whispered. "I just… I miss him."

"Then maybe I can work a little magic."

"You have that kind of magic?" Flare stared, wide-eyed as Kinana laughed and shook her head.

"I don't have any real magic. I just meant, as someone he trusts, he'll listen to me if I tell him to call you."

"Just like that?"

"It might take a little convincing," Kinana winced while thinking about what it might take to get her friend to call Flare. "I can put the bug in his ear, and then we just have to wait for him to do it."

"Do you really think he will?"

She nodded in an instant, thinking back to what she'd heard in his soul. How he'd called out to Flare and the way his soul fluttered at just the thought of her. "I do, Flare," she whispered, smiling softly. "I think he really wants to be with you. And all I want is for him to be happy."

* * *

Soft whimpers drifted through the air. Stifled sobs ricocheted across his synapses, causing Cobra to wince and shift restlessly. He knew it wasn't happening right then, that it was only a memory, but it was _her_ voice that he remembered.

Flare had cried that morning. Her soul had sounded as though it was being ripped in half, and somehow he'd forced himself to keep walking away from the village of giants. Her soul had begged him to return when he'd woken up with his arms around her, just before dawn, and silently crept from her bed. It had been hard enough to pull away from her without her soul whispering to him.

And he hadn't realized until he was lying in his tent right then that she'd wanted him - no, needed him - to stay with her. He was the reason she'd cried so hard, the reason he'd heard in Lucy's soul just two days prior, when they'd run into Team Natsu on the road, that Flare had sobbed for hours on the blonde.

But Cobra knew what he could do to remedy all of this. It was just a matter of getting his own head out of his ass and calling her. He could do it. But for some reason, every single time he grabbed the lacrima over the past few weeks since talking to Kinana, doubt snaked its way down his spine.

It was pathetic.

 _He_ was pathetic.

Finally, Cobra just forced himself to grab the stupid little orb that laid next to his bedroll. His eye opened and he cringed at the reflection staring back at him. He just couldn't explain it. No matter what he tried, Cobra couldn't find the will to eat all that much. And now, when he was going to try and talk to her, just to apologize - seven though it was a step far out of his comfort zone - Cobra looked like he'd been used as a Vulcan enema. Haunted, exhausted, and far too thin.

His hair was flat, still drying from the bath he'd taken in the nearby stream. His nose was red from the tissues he'd been rubbing across it. As if he didn't feel horrible enough, Cobra just had to get a case of the fucking sniffles.

But this wasn't going to stop him. It wouldn't be long before Midnight came in to check on him, and he wanted to have something to do until then. Something he should have done weeks before.

He sent a small pulse of magic into the orb, rubbing his nose with a tissue once again. It pulsed again and again, and just when he was ready to give up, he saw her eyes. And all at once, the ache that had taken root deep in his chest, eased. His soul sighed, filled anew with life.

"... Cobra?"

"Damn, you're gorgeous," he whispered. The vacancy in her eyes was gone in a flash. Her lips parted as tears welled on her lashes, fire burning in her eyes once again. Just like he remembered.

"Go fuck yourself, Co-"

"I'm sorry, Gingerbread," he sniffled. Phlegm tickled the back of his throat and he tried several times to clear it. "Ugh, I feel horrible…"

"Are you dying or something?"

"No," he laughed. "I'm just sick. But that's not important. I'm sorry."

Flare's lips pursed while she looked away from the lacrima. His gaze was instantly drawn to how her hair brushed along her shoulder. It was down, he realized, flowing freely in the soft light of what he knew was her bedroom. "Yeah, whatever."

"I shouldn't have left."

"You had to," she shrugged, still not looking at him. "I understand. You've got a guild, things to do."

"Flare," he whispered, wincing when he heard her soul echoing with pain in the distance. Cobra really wasn't sure what he was even trying to say. It wasn't like he spent all that much time on a lacrima with someone in the first place. He hated it, actually, since he couldn't hear the person's soul as easily as when he was right in front them. "I didn't want to go."

"You had to," she repeated.

' _I wish you hadn't… My heart hurts… What did you to do me?'_

There was no accusation in the gentle echo he heard from the auburn beauty. Just loneliness. Longing. And it was then, as he looked at her profile, that Cobra remembered what her soul had always whispered. Something he hadn't realized he'd heard, but somehow knew was there.

' _Don't leave me alone again. I want to find someone like me. Do you understand me?'_

Just like him.

Cobra sniffled again, clearing his throat as he watched her. He knew he needed to say something, but what could he say? He'd apologized to her. She knew he didn't want to leave, but she just brushed it off. What else was there, really?

" _Maybe try saying you miss her, Cobra,"_ came the silent, calm voice of Midnight. _"I can only assume you're trying to make things right, and if you want to ever see her again, she needs to know you care."_

Cobra sighed. "Flare… will you look at me?" She slowly turned, just enough for her gaze to fall on him again. Vacant once more. Damnit, how was he supposed to say something like this without sounding like a total fucking toolbag?

"... Are you just going to stare at me?"

"I like it," he said without another thought. "Staring at you." Fuck, that sounded stupid. Midnight's palm slapping into his forehead outside of the tent was enough proof of that.

Flare blinked, her head tilting just a little closer to the lacrima. "Why?"

"Because you're beautiful and looking at you makes my soul sigh like a swooning little teeny-bopper." Cobra's lips clamped shut in an instant. God-fucking-damnit, that was _not_ what he meant to say! Not at all. Clearly being sick had also made him fucking delusional. But the curious look in Flare's eyes made him pause just before he could shut off the lacrima and go throw himself off of a fucking cliff.

"Are you blushing right now?"

"I'm sick," he huffed. Now it was his turn to look away from the orb. The gentle laugh from her drew him right back, though. He'd heard that sound only a handful of times when he'd been in Sun Village, but it had never sounded so innocent, so pure. So fucking _right_.

"You're kind of cute when you blush," Flare whispered. "Your ears are red."

"Fuck you, Gingerbread," he muttered. But she still smiled. And it took him several seconds to realize that he was doing it right along with her. She brushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear, and he was instantly reminded of what he'd told her to do when they'd slept together.

" _Touch me with this," he whispered, his fingers brushing through the fiery strands again. "Everywhere. If you want me to play nice, you'll have to make me."_

 _Slowly, her hair lifted from the floor and started wrapping itself around his body. Calves, thighs, arms, throat, chest. More sections brushed lightly over his back, slithered between his shoulder blades._

" _Sh-Shit," Cobra hissed. He didn't mind it one bit that he was being tied up like this. He wanted Flare's hair surrounding him. Touching him. Everywhere, all at once. "F-Fuck… Rub it harder, Gingerbread."_

And with the memory of how she'd tied him up during sex, came another.

" _Mm, don't braid your hair again."_

 _Flare frowned and lifted her head from his chest. "What?"_

" _I like your hair," he smirked. "So let it free tonight."_

"Your hair is so beautiful," he whispered.

"... What?"

Cobra shook his head, his smile widening slightly when he saw the confusion sitting so plainly on her face. "Your hair," he said a little more clearly. "It's beautiful. I… I miss how it felt."

"You mean…"

He felt his cheeks and ears burning, but it didn't stop him from saying what was on his mind. "Touching it, how you touched me with it. I've, um… I've got this thing about hair."

"I figured as much," she giggled, though he could see the light dusting of pink on her cheeks. "It's down right now. Wanna see?"

Oh, did he want to see her hair. Cobra nodded quickly, rolling onto his side and getting more comfortable. He was so focused on the screen that he didn't hear Midnight and the rest of his guild turning in for the night, or their quiet, smiling comments about how they were glad he was talking to Flare. "Stretch it out," he whispered. "I wanna see how long it is."

Flare smiled, just a quick flash before the lacrima turned from her face, and Cobra found himself mesmerized by the sight he beheld. Long ruby tresses cascaded down her back, over her shoulders, and onto the floor. He remembered, roughly, the size of her room, and when he realized that her hair was spread across the floor and nearly touching the corners, Cobra took a shuddering breath filled with desire.

God, he missed her hair. The warmth. How soft it was. Seeing the light bouncing off of it, the gentle glow from within that he'd barely seen only one time.

"I can make it shorter or longer," she said, and he watched the fiery strands slide closer to her. "It's why I keep it braided."

"Don't," he rasped. Damn, he sounded desperate right then. Even he could hear it. "I like it long." Her hair stopped moving, but the lacrima shifted again until it simply floated in the air in her bedroom. "What are you doing?"

The lacrima turned until he could see Flare smiling back at him, with one hand holding her hair and the other lifting a brush into the air. "Cobra, I was about to brush my hair when you called," she said. He could swear he saw a sudden flicker of mischief in her eyes. "I don't want to hang up, but…"

"Y-You can do that now," he said, sniffling and wiping his nose again. "I don't mind." He nearly doubled over when a bright splash of crimson desire rippled through his senses from her soul. Even from so far away, he could hear it. He could nearly smell her arousal hanging thick in the air.

A lock of her hair took the place of her hand on the brush, then brought it to her scalp. Each stroke was slow, careful, meticulous in a way that Cobra had never seen before. But every time she reached the end of one section, he nearly whimpered as the tips of her hair flicked up into the air.

What he wouldn't give to feel that on his skin. To bury his nose in her hair again, like he'd done while they slept, and soak in her cinnamon-ember scent. His breath stuttered when a section of her hair brushed gently across the face of the lacrima, almost as though she was doing to it to him.

"Everything okay?" Flare asked.

"Y-Yeah… Just… Keep brushing, okay?"

"Sure," she smiled. The brush continued running through her hair. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Um…"

"Cobra?"

He fought to keep his free hand from slipping beneath the blanket so he could palm his straining arousal. It wasn't as though he could just rub one out right then. Not with Flare watching him. It wasn't even a matter of whether the others in the camp would hear. He didn't care about that. It was more that he hadn't called Flare just so he could jerk it to her hair.

Fuck, that sounded like a wonderful idea, though.

The lacrima moved closer to her face, close enough for him to see the few strands that had fallen across her cheek. He could still see her hair moving one way and another in the background.

"Tell me something," Flare whispered.

Cobra nodded slowly.

"Would it be weird if I… did something?"

"I don't know. What do you have in mind?"

She nibbled her lip and lowered her eyes as her cheeks flushed once again. "To be honest, I… I miss you."

Shit, he'd forgotten to tell her that! He'd meant to say he missed her. Cobra really couldn't remember what they'd talked about though. He'd apologized, but what else was there? And for the first time in his life, Cobra realized that even though their conversation had been so ridiculously _unimportant_ , he didn't care. He was talking to her again. Seeing her. Hell, they could sit on the line and just watch each other, and he knew he would have been more than happy to do it.

"I miss you, too," he finally whispered back. "Every day."

Her smile stayed in place when he started sneezing, and the Hair mage simply watched Cobra as tears sprung to his eye when one sneeze turned into two, then three.

"Fuck, kill me now," he groaned.

"You don't get sick often, do you?"

"No."

"Maybe I should let you sleep then. You'll feel better-"

"You make me feel better," he said, roughly swiping his palm over his eye to get rid of the moisture welling on his lashes. When he looked at her again, her mouth hung open and she blinked in surprise. "What did you want to do?"

"Oh! Um…" And once again, she was back to the timid little mouse. He just couldn't get enough of seeing her switch like this, so quickly, so extremely. "Well, you can say no, but… Maybe, _we_ could do something. Like this. Since I don't know if I'll see you again…"

"I'll call you every single day if you want." Shit, where the hell had that come from? It wasn't like Cobra wanted take it back, but he hadn't a clue why it had slipped out in the first place.

"You don't have to do that…"

"What did you have in mind, Gingerbread?" he asked with a small smirk.

"Well, you'd have to be… wearing less," she whispered. "I would too, though."

"Are you telling me you wanna _play_ on a lacrima?" Cobra grinned when she blushed again. Oh, what a wonderful turn of events. And here he'd been worried that she wouldn't want anything to do with him. That she wouldn't even want to talk to him. That she would take one look at his face and decide it had all been a huge mistake.

And she might still do that. There was no telling what would happen, but Cobra - for once in his life - just wanted to live in the moment with her. He wanted to take what he could get, and to see how long he could have what the Hair mage was willing to offer.

"But," Flare whispered, "I want to see your face."

"Not my dick?" he chuckled. "That's in my top three best features."

"All of you, but especially your face." She smiled again, moving the lacrima a little closer. "You make the cutest faces when you're about to cum." He let out a quiet groan, biting his lip nearly hard enough to draw blood. "Did you know that I've dreamt about just that? Just the face you make when my hair's wrapped around you and you're breathless and fighting to hold back. I wake up soaked, Cobra."

"Damnit…" He hadn't realized she would start with dirty talk so soon. Or how much it would affect him.

He set the lacrima down and reached for the hem of his shirt. He'd never done anything like this before. It was new, strange, and there was a small part of him that wondered whether he'd actually be able to go through with it. Because while it was arousing as hell being able to see her like this, to listen to her voice, Cobra just didn't know how well he'd handle talking back. "I'll give you a sexy show some other time."

"I expect dancing and slutty thrusting," Flare laughed.

"Oh, you'll get the sluttiest thrusts ever," he grinned, tossing his thermal shirt toward his feet. He reached down and hooked his thumb into his pants and boxers, then waited. "I might even do a lovely dick windmill."

"That's my favorite move," she giggled. "Let me see you, Cobra."

He picked up the lacrima once again, focusing the orb on his face while using just his fingertips to stroke himself. Just a little teasing for now. "Here I am," he smirked.

"All of you. Your throat and chest…"

He moved his hand down, stretching his neck and turning his head to one side. "Would you be licking me right now, if you could?" he whispered.

"And biting you. I'd wrap my hair around your arms to keep you still when I lick your ears, though." His cock bounced with need in his grasp and he moved the lacrima lower so she could see his chest. "You look skinnier," she frowned.

"Haven't been able to eat all that much. I'll be fine." He knew it wasn't entirely true. Just as Cobra knew that he looked like death warmed over. Probably the least sexy thing in the universe right then.

"Flames, I love how dark your nipples are," she whispered. "Touch them for me. But lick your fingers first."

Cobra groaned softly while releasing his hold on himself, then licked his fingers and started gently teasing one nipple.

"Blow on it." Flare's breath hitched while watching his long fingers pluck and pull at his nipple, how it hardened with the sudden chilly air rushing past. How she heard his breath hitch and the lacrima shifted just enough so she could see his single eye burning into her as his lower lip was pulled between sharp teeth. "Move lower now. But touch your stomach. Nice and slow."

His fingers danced down the center of his chest toward the band of his pants, trailing through the thin path of hair leading from his navel down to what he knew Flare really wanted to see. Her soul was quiet again. "I wish I could hear you."

"Is the connection bad?" she asked.

"No, I mean your soul," he smirked, turning the orb so she could see his face again. "It goes in and out, and with how far away I am it's harder to hear."

"Oh…" She gave him a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Cobra said. "But I think it's my turn to see you, now." He remembered how delicious her body looked, but he wanted to see her again. All of her. Her perfect breasts, the scars on her arms and stomach that he'd barely taken notice of before. Her hips and ass and the hairless eden that rested between her pale thighs. "But you can't use your hands."

"What should I do with them then?" Flare laughed, sending two locks of hair up to the tie on her dress while moving the lacrima slowly toward her breasts.

"Touch yourself," Cobra rasped. "Tell me how wet you are. Don't let me see yet, just tell me."

Flare whimpered and let her dress fall away from her breasts while reaching between her legs, beneath the fabric.

"Not too fast," Cobra whispered. His hand pushed beneath his pants as the crimson dress slithered down to pool at her waist, baring those pale pink buds he'd so thoroughly teased the last time they were together. God, he wanted her hands on him instead of his own. "Just a finger. Touch your pussy, Gingerbread."

"Mmph… Cobra…" Her breasts quivered when she took a shuddering breath. Her free hand lifted and drew slow circles around her nipple, then trailed up to her throat. Back down to her other breast. "I'm wet."

" _How_ wet?" He watched her back arch only slightly, then her fingers came into view on the screen, glistening down to the second knuckle and probably as sweet as he remembered. "Taste them for me," he rasped.

"What?" she giggled, blushing again while raising the lacrima back to her face. "Taste them?"

"Yeah," he grinned. "Lick it all off the way I would if I was there right now. Tell me what your sweet little cunt tastes like."

His hand slid up the length of his shaft while her fingers drifted toward her deviously grinning lips. Her tongue slipped out to flick across the moistened tips. "Do you remember," Flare whispered, "What it tasted like when I kissed you? After I cleaned you up?"

"God, yes… Like cinnamon."

Flare's tongue curled around her fingers moments before her lips surrounded them. He watched as her eyes slid closed, listened to the soft moan drifting through the air. "Cinnamon," she nodded. "It's _just_ like you remember."

"Fuck…" He rubbed himself with more purpose, twisting his hand only slightly to work himself up a little more. He may have been a little impatient with her when they were together - when he wasn't teasing her and making her bend to his whims - but Cobra preferred denying himself until he just couldn't take it any longer.

"Cobra, should I rub myself with my hair for you?" She smiled when he gulped and nodded. The lacrima pulled back so he could see her spread out on the futon in her room, completely naked with her hair writhing like a den of serpents. Some strands reached toward the lacrima, beckoning him closer, while others slithered across her pale thighs, her stomach, coiled around her breasts and teased her pert nipples.

"God, just like that," he hissed. "Touch everywhere… Fuck, lemme see what your sexy hair can do."

Flare whimpered while she gazed at the orb, bringing it closer to her core as her hair pulled her thighs apart. "Like this, Cobra?"

His eye widened at the sight of those ruby locks lowering to tease her glistening sex, spreading her open for him to see the most intimate part of her with startling clarity. Pale pink lips misted with arousal, the small bundle of nerves just above, hidden from view for the time being.

"Perfect," he breathed. His hand left his pants with a droplet of moisture clinging to the tip of his thumb. "Taste me, Flare."

He heard her quiet whimper as his thumb brushed across his lower lip then slid into his mouth.

"Just like I remember?" she rasped.

"Sweeter than you remember. Without you all over it, my shit's like fucking candy." He grinned when she let out a quiet moan, licking his lips as her fingers returned to her sex.

"Show me, Cobra… Show me what I'm missing."

He lowered the lacrima so she could see where his bare flesh met with his pants, then hooked his thumb beneath the hem. The hair covering Flare's stomach shifted, and he frowned in confusion at the sight of crimson scales blossoming across her lower belly, just beneath her navel. "What's-"

A large explosion rocked the earth, and Cobra sat up quickly, his eye wide as he honed in on the hundreds of souls closing in on their camp. "Fuck! Two hundred! Two-fifty!" he bellowed to his guildmates through the thin walls of his tent.

"Cobra?" Flare whispered. "Cobra, what's going on?"

"Shit," he dropped the lacrima and pulled his shirt back on, then his boots and coat. "Gingerbread, I gotta go."

"What's happening?" Only her face filled the screen now, the fire in her eyes missing and filled with concern.

"Finish up for me, okay?" he smirked. "I'll call you when we're done. I promise."

"Cobra-"

"I've gotta go… Damnit. Two-seventy-five! Half mages! One klick north-northeast!"

"Cobra, wait!"

He paused, just about to toss the lacrima into his pack, then looked at the screen. "What?!" he snarled.

Still, she smiled at him and brought the orb closer to her lips. "Be safe and make them sorry for interrupting us," she whispered just before kissing the lacrima.

He chuckled and ignored the fire raging through the trees outside for just a moment. Just long enough to reciprocate with a gentle kiss to the glass orb. "Rain check," he said. "I'm serious though. You'd better finish up. I _will_ call you later, and I wanna know how badly you need to see me cum."

"As soon as you're done?"

"Bloody and dirty," he nodded with a dark grin. "You've got my word."

She giggled quietly as her hair trailed across the orb where he could see it. "And you're a man of your word," she nodded back. "Have fun."

The lacrima darkened, and suddenly the Poison Slayer was filled with rage. Not just for the cocksuckers who were stupid enough to try and get a sneak attack on their guild, but because he'd been interrupted while finally spending time with Flare. Even worse was that it was just getting to the best part.

Blue balls, be damned. These bastards were going to feel a whole world of pain from him alone. And as soon as he was finished, he was calling her back.

All thoughts of the scales he'd seen on her pale flesh disappeared as soon as he left the confines of his tent. Racer was throwing bucket after bucket of water from the nearby stream onto the surrounding trees to put out the fires. Angel was clutching at her coins with a deep scowl, the eye mask she wore to sleep still perched on her forehead.

Midnight was nowhere to be seen, most likely scouting with Cobra's shouted intel as a rough guide.

"Why didn't you hear them?" Jellal scowled as he came to stand beside Cobra just before they took off in the direction Midnight had flown on his carpet.

"I was busy."

"Doing what?"

"Lacrima sex," Angel smirked. "Dirty Cobra."

"Fuck you, asshole," he growled. "These motherfuckers are dead fucking meat."

"Cobra-" Jellal began, ready to start his speech about how they didn't kill people if it could be avoided.

"I will shove my blue balls in your sassy fucking mouth, Jellal," he snarled. "Don't tempt me!"

Jellal paused and shuddered in disgust, then understanding dawned in his widened, brown eyes. "Oh god… You were really…"

"These guys are so dead," Angel smirked. "We're not even gonna be needed for this."

Jellal shook his head, cringing when he thought of what Cobra might do. "Just… don't kill them _too_ much," he sighed. Being interrupted like that… Oh, he understood the mounting frustration all too well. And there was no way someone like Cobra, a man who was just a little detached from reality on a good day, was going to let this slight go unpunished. And Jellal just had to accept that.

"Now you're getting it," Cobra chuckled as a dark grin spread over his face. He couldn't wait for this shit to be over so he could curl back up in his tent and get back to what he was doing with Flare.


	3. The Truth is a Long Time Coming

**A/N: So here's the next installment. This was supposed to be the final chapter, but there was enough content that I wanted to get put into this story for me to break it up into two chapters. Sorry for the long wait on it!**

 **(Note: If you don't know what a pangolin looks like, think of Sandslash... or give it a quick Google search.)**

* * *

 _ **The Truth is a Long Time Coming**_

* * *

It was two days after Cobra had finally gotten his head out of his ass and called Flare that a thought occurred to him. He wasn't sure just what had made it spark in the front of his mind while laying down for the night, but as he listened to the quiet chirping of insects and the crackling fire just outside of his tent, one image plastered itself right behind his closed eyelid.

The crimson scales stretching across her lower belly that he'd seen on the lacrima just before they'd been interrupted.

He'd called her back after killing a quarter of the mages who had so rudely interrupted them. The rest, he'd left to writhe on the ground from his poison while everyone else in his guild rounded them up. Cobra hadn't given a shit about why they were there or anything else. Once it was handled, he'd gone right back to his tent, grabbed his lacrima, then stormed off into the woods nearly a mile away from their camp. He'd taken a minute to make sure no one was around before calling her. And thank fucking God he'd called her when he had. She hadn't cum yet, and he'd been able to sit and watch the way her hair moved over her body in teasing flicks while her fingers pounded into her sex. And while he sat at the base of a large tree, Cobra had pulled down his pants and given Flare the show she'd wanted, listening to the way she'd moaned his name while climaxing.

But now, two days later, he was stuck staring at the apex of his tent over his head, thinking about those damn scales on her stomach. He didn't know what they were though. He knew for a fact they hadn't been there when he'd fucked her. Granted, he hadn't put his face between her legs that day, but he did remember the way her pale skin had looked from her pert breasts down to the eden between her legs. And there hadn't been fucking scales. She hadn't even had dry skin anywhere that he'd touched. No rough elbows or calloused ankles. Flare was porcelain smooth from top to bottom.

She especially hadn't had scales on her that looked terrifyingly similar to the ones that covered his arms when he used his Slayer magic.

Maybe it had been a side effect of her eating his poison when they'd been fucking though. Maybe it was some sort of Dragon Slayer shit that he didn't really know about, because he was usually in the dark on a lot of things where the magic from that stupid fucking lacrima was concerned. It just meant he needed to get in contact with another Dragon Slayer. Considering he knew where all of them were - it was just a little sad that they were only split between two light guilds, but that did work in his favor - it was only a matter of deciding who he needed to talk to.

His first thought was Natsu. And it was instantly a big, fat _No_ on principle. Like hell was Cobra going to go crawling over to that fire-eating shit sandwich and ask him questions about being a Dragon Slayer. He would rather shove a pissed off pangolin up his ass, tail first, before asking Natsu for help.

Gajeel might have the answers he needed, but avoiding Fairy Tail would probably be preferable. Besides, Cobra had no idea whether Gajeel even knew enough about this shit to begin with, especially since the guy was as gay as they came and pining over that little green-haired fruitcake who had a hard-on for Laxus. Maybe it was different for Slayers who weren't into women. Maybe Gajeel was a fucking virgin and didn't know a damn thing about it to begin with. That meant he couldn't ask Gajeel, either.

Then there was Wendy. She was a healer, and she'd been raised by a dragon, so she was probably a really good fucking choice of someone to talk to about just what the fuck had happened with Flare. Except she was a fucking kid. He wasn't going to walk up to a little girl - healer or not - and start telling her about his goddamn sex life. He'd had enough stints in prison, thank you very much.

Laxus was probably his best bet in Fairy Tail. The only problem was that the guy was a second generation Slayer, just like Cobra, so maybe he didn't have a fucking clue about any of this shit either. Sure, Laxus was in a serious relationship with their guild's Celestial mage, so Cobra knew for a fact that he at least knew what it was like to fuck a woman, but maybe there was something that only happened with some Dragon Slayers and not others. So, Laxus was out as well.

That meant every Dragon Slayer in Fairy Tail was out of the question.

And that only left two others for him to turn to. Luckily, Crime Sorciere was relatively close to Sabertooth, so it wasn't like he'd have to travel too far out of his way to get some answers. The only question was… which one to ask.

Sting made Cobra want to cut his fucking ears off and shove them in a blender. It was like having a blond Natsu running around with fucking _light_ powers instead of fire. So instead of burning people, he just fucking blinded them. _'No fucking thank you,'_ he thought.

That only left Rogue. His last chance at getting some answers without having to compromise too much. Cobra had never really dealt with Rogue before. Or Sting for that matter. But at least the Shadow Dragon Slayer was quiet, and his soul was mostly calm. It still had a booming sort of intensity to it, as did all the other Slayers, but just hearing it made Cobra feel cold inside. It was unnerving, sure, but at least he wasn't obnoxious. And he was already mated, and had been for years. That was a definite bonus. Because Cobra only had a vague understanding of what any of that ridiculous draconic mating bullshit even was. Then again, he was positive that nothing like that would be happening to him any time soon. Or ever, since he was only a second generation Slayer. He probably didn't get the majority of the shit the other Slayers did. And that was actually fine with him.

He didn't need any of that in his life, mucking things up. Shit was complicated enough as it was.

With a heavy sigh, Cobra forced his eye to close while searching for Rogue's soul. It was near Sabertooth, in what he realized was the Shadow Slayer's home with his mate. He pulled away from Rogue's soul when he heard the guy's thoughts concerning how much he liked being degraded by his mate.

Cobra really hadn't wanted to know Rogue got off on being slapped and spat on while he was chained to the fucking floor. Although, if he was sporting a split lip the next day, then Cobra already knew it would be from her solid backhand. Apparently, Rogue took the word masochist to a whole new fucking level. With all the shit he'd heard in people's souls over the years, he wasn't sure he'd ever known someone to be _this_ into someone tearing them down.

But Rogue was the only one Cobra could ask about this shit with Flare. As long as that crazy wench didn't knock Rogue's noggin loose, Cobra really didn't give a shit what those two did.

* * *

The large Sabertooth building loomed on the path before him, and Cobra trudged on past the nearby craggy stones jutting from the ground. He had shit to do, and he could hear the utter tranquility in Rogue's soul inside that damn building. Maybe there was something to the beating he'd taken from his mate the night before, if his soul could sound like that. Then again, Cobra knew there was no way in hell he'd let Flare sit on his face until he'd nearly suffocated while taking a riding crop to his thighs.

He wasn't even sure why he'd instantly pictured _her_ doing it. Sure, he liked her, and he really liked fucking her, but it wasn't like they were an item. He'd never actually said much to her past the fact the he liked looking at her. And that he missed her.

With a shake of his head, Cobra took the final steps up to the oversized doors of Sabertooth. He pushed them open and walked inside with no preamble. No one seemed to notice him at first, which was a plus. But soon, one soul fluttered with concern at his noted presence. Then a second. A third. A whole slew of souls murmured and trembled with anticipation while he bypassed them all on a direct path to the silent Shadow Dragon Slayer who was making a point of not looking at him.

It was strange how half of them were planning on how they could stay loyal to Sabertooth while still becoming part of a dark guild at Cobra's order.

The fucking morons.

Cobra stopped in front of Rogue, and he was even more thankful that that sadistic freak Minerva was nowhere near him. He really didn't want to hear her fucking soul. "Rogue," he said, turning a chair and straddling it as he sat down. "I've got some shit to talk to you about."

"Cobra of the Oracion Seis wants to talk to me," Rogue said. "I'll pass."

Cobra smirked and leaned forward, his eye sliding off to one side to look at the little green Exceed wearing a pink frog costume. "You don't seem to understand."

"Frosch, go find Lector." Rogue took a sip of his hot cocoa while Frosch nodded and bounded off the table. His crimson gaze stayed trained on Cobra, and he discreetly pulled in a small breath to try and memorize his scent. Bitter, toxic, and just a little like the woods. That meant he must have been outside for a long time for it to cling to his cloak so much.

"Smart," Cobra chuckled. "I'll correct you now, before you get too far ahead of yourself. I'm not with the Oracion Seis."

"The name of your dark guild really doesn't matter to me."

"I'm with Crime Sorciere." Cobra rolled his eye when the name didn't ring any bells. Of fucking course it didn't. No one but the Council and Fairy Tail knew about Crime Sorciere's single-minded ambition. It would have been nice to get just a little bit of credit for the guilds they took down. Or even for the other light guilds to know what they were doing. "Independent guild. We're the ones taking all the dark guilds down while you guys do the piddly shit."

Rogue's eye twitched, and while no one else was privy to his inner workings, Cobra sure was.

' _Piddly shit, huh? There goes my good day. And here I'd been so happy about Minerva treating me to hot cocoa. After what we did last night… Although, he has a point. Why don't we take down more dark guilds? Well, with a guild master like Sting… No, it's not his fault. We're still sorting ourselves out after getting rid of Jiemma. Things are better now. But why would Cobra be here? He must want something. I don't trust him. He smells… wrong somehow.'_

"First off, fuck you," Cobra growled. "I don't smell _wrong_." Rogue's eyes went wide. Much wider than anyone had ever seen before. "Second, stop worrying so fucking much about the details. I'm here to talk to you about the one fucking thing we actually have in common."

' _The only thing we have in common is our magic.'_

"Exactly," Cobra said. He was just about to relax a little more, but then he heard the clusterfuck of Sting's soul rushing down the hall, vaulting over a railing on the second floor, and landing only feet behind him. "Ugh, here we go."

"What the hell are you doing in my guild?"

"Visiting with Rogue," he said over his shoulder. Cobra didn't bother looking at the stricken expression on Sting's face. "Someone named Orga is in the kitchen with a white chocolate rabbit, by the way."

"That asshole!" Sting shouted, spinning on his heel and rushing off. "Orga, that's my chocolate!"

Rogue rolled his eyes and pushed his chair away from the table. "Follow me to Sting's office," he sighed. He stood and picked up his cocoa, then turned toward the stairs on the other side of the hall. "Whatever it is, I don't feel like having people listening."

As Cobra let Rogue lead him further from the main hall, he realized that this was probably going to be the most depressing conversation he'd ever had in his life. Rogue's voice was going to make his ass turn into Midnight with all of his narcoleptic bullshit. But it needed to happen, that was something he was positive of. Because he really didn't have anyone to turn to, and he did care at least a little bit about Flare. If those scales he'd seen on her were his fault for poisoning her, he wanted to make sure she was going to be alright.

The office was a fucking mess when they walked in. Papers were balled up and tossed everywhere. What he was sure was Sting's desk had piles of paperwork littered all over it with only a small space for him to actually work. Cobra was sure that Sting hardly did any actual work though.

Rogue didn't show him to a chair, and instead turned to glare at him once they had the door closed and locked. "What is it you want? We're not exactly fond of harboring criminals."

"Oh please," Cobra snorted. "You tigers were two shady jobs away from being a fucking dark guild. Just because you never got caught for murder doesn't mean it didn't fucking happen."

Rogue's eyes narrowed. "What do you want?"

Cobra was more than ready to keep fucking with him. Apparently the way Sabertooth had been run before was a very sore spot for a lot of them. But he needed answers, so that meant he needed to actually play nice for a change. "I need to know if Dragon Slayer magic can make scales show up on someone else," he said. Rogue's soul rippled with confusion. That definitely didn't bode well for him. If Rogue didn't know why Flare had those scales, then Cobra was at a loss for what to do about it.

"What kind of scales are we talking about?"

"Right here," he said, gesturing toward his belt. "She didn't have them before. I saw them a few days ago."

"You…" Rogue brushed a hand over his face and walked around Cobra. "You need to sit down."

"Just fucking tell me."

Rogue shook his head and took a seat on the only couch in the room, a plush white and grey monstrosity, tucked away in a corner. "This is going to take a bit," he said. "And you need to listen, because-"

"Because I'm a second gen," Cobra nodded. "Yeah, which is why I'm coming to you in the first place."

"You didn't have a dragon to teach you, right?"

Cobra rolled his eye that time. "Yeah fucking right. I still question how you lot could have been raised by them." Still, he followed Rogue's lead and sat on the couch as well. He shifted several times to try and get comfortable while Rogue sipped at his cocoa. The stupid couch was one giant beanbag. Only fucking Sting would do something like this. "But you're right. There were no dragons involved."

Rogue nodded and sat back. He was silent for several long moments, but Cobra didn't even consider interrupting him. Not while he was trying to collect his thoughts, organizing what he'd been taught and the things he'd learned over the years. When he was ready, his seemingly bored crimson eyes lifted and locked onto Cobra's face.

"I was told you have more than one type of magic," Rogue began. "Aside from Dragon Slayer magic, there's something else."

"Soul Listening," Cobra said. "And Sound magic now, too." It was a good thing Rogue didn't want him to elaborate on just what his magic was capable of.

"Stop me if there's something you already know," Rogue said. He waited for a short nod from Cobra then let out a slow, soothing breath. "I guess we should begin with instincts. Dragons rely on their instincts for everything. More than sight and sound and smell. Those are stronger than most, and I'm sure you've already figured out that your own human senses are enhanced from the lacrima."

"Yep."

"There's also your own instincts. Most people have nothing more than a gut feeling about something, but for us - and I don't know if this is the case for you, since you're a second generation - for us, it's more than a gut feeling. It's this… voice, but it says nothing. It's a presence in your soul, but it has no form. Sometimes, it's like claws digging into your shoulders, pushing you down or lifting you up."

It was no fucking wonder to Cobra that the Dragon Slayers were a bunch of fucking lunatics. Rogue was repeating, verbatim, what had been taught to him. Circuitous logic bullshit, was what it was. "You do realize I hear voices in my head all the time, right?" Cobra chuckled.

"But this one doesn't speak," Rogue said. "It rumbles, and it roars, and it pulls you in one direction or another. Has there ever been a time where you've done something, but you can't really pinpoint a reason you did it?"

The night he'd had sex with Flare roared to life in his skull. He'd been able to keep himself under control the entire time he'd been in Sun Village, except that one time. That night, seeing her crying over the fact that he was leaving, hearing her soul's pleas for him to not go away… He'd moved without thinking, and he'd kissed her.

Cobra hadn't been able to pull away after that.

He'd been able to feel his soul calling out to her ever since he'd left her behind. Every morning when he woke up, he could feel this pressure in his chest, pulling away from his camp. Every step he took that was further from her had a dull ache throbbing in his joints. Every night when he went to sleep, he tossed and turned and struggled to get himself comfortable without the presence of her hair slipping between his fingers.

"It looks like there has been," Rogue said, drawing Cobra's attention back to him in an instant. He took another slow sip of his cocoa. "That's your instincts. It doesn't say things like, _Kill him_ or _Don't eat that_. You just get a feeling, and you know."

"I think this is different," Cobra said as he stared down at his hands. They clenched in his lap and his eye closed. His magic stretched across miles and miles until he felt the gentle brush of Flare's soul. He could locate her, but he couldn't hear what she was thinking about. Or what she was doing. At least he could tell that she was still alive and in Sun Village.

"Different?"

"I feel my soul reaching out to her." It sounded sappy as hell, but if Rogue was going to give him answers, he couldn't hold back. The only way for him to learn what he needed to was to give the Shadow Slayer all the information he could.

"That sounds like she's your mate." Rogue's eyes narrowed slightly while he watched Cobra fall into a nearly meditative state. His tanned hands relaxed in his lap, and the tension in his shoulders melted away as the seconds ticked by.

"I don't even know what that shit is," Cobra muttered. "Aside from having heard the name in passing, and a general idea of it based on animals."

Rogue huffed out a nearly silent chuckle at that. "It's a little like that, I suppose. For dragons, there's a single soul that binds with theirs for all eternity. Skiadrum liked to call it fate. Sting told me that Weisslogia said it was soulmates. But whatever you want to call it, there's one other being in the world for each of us."

"That shit always sounds sketchy as hell," Cobra snorted. "How are you supposed to find that one person?"

"Well, it's not hard for dragons. They're able to tell who their mate is based on scent alone. Skiadrum told me that some could even tell others' mates by scent before they were mated; it allowed parents to find their hatchling's mate, so they could be raised in closer proximity. As Dragon Slayers, we get a portion of that ability, but it's not nearly as strong. We're still humans, after all. So we have to rely on our instincts. And those instincts will pull us toward the person we're meant to be with."

"Which explains why you allow Minerva's psychotic ass to beat you black and blue."

"That… is something else entirely," Rogue growled. Cobra's eye slid open and locked onto the sudden glare being directed at him. He didn't miss the way Rogue's tongue slid over the raw patch inside his cheek where he'd accidentally bitten it the night before. "You should know, since you're a Slayer as well."

Cobra couldn't help but fucking stare at him after that. Because what he was thinking about was the furthest thing from the truth. "I'm not some masochistic ninny who wants a woman to dominate me," he snarled.

"Dragons run a matriarchal society," Rogue said. "The females are in control, and the males serve them."

"Fuck. That."

Rogue raised a hand to silence him. "Let me finish. Male dragons are inherently stronger. They hunt and fight while the females raise their offspring. To anyone outside of their society, one would think it's the males who are in control, but the truth is that females are. They always have been."

"Okay, and? What the hell does that have to do with you thinking I'm a-"

"Let me finish, Cobra," Rogue sighed. "The easiest way to control a male dragon is to show your dominance over him. With how powerful the males are, the females had to make sure they didn't go on a rampage. For Slayers, it's different. We don't live in a matriarchal society, but the draconic instincts inside of us dictate that we defer to women."

"I swear to fucking god-"

"You're worse than Sting," Rogue grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Do you mean to tell me there's no part of you that wants to find someone to hold you back?"

"No," Cobra growled. Hell no, he didn't want a woman to hold him back. He wanted someone who was on his fucking level. Someone who wouldn't hold him back, but who challenged him. Cobra wanted a woman that made him quiver down to his damn soul.

"So, you don't want a woman who's powerful enough to hold you down," Rogue said with a nod. He stared across the room toward Sting's desk, piled high with papers. "Somebody who can take the darkest parts of you and accept them, just as they are. That's what being someone's mate is about. Take away the whips and chains, or whatever it is you prefer, and it's about having a person who you connect with on more than a physical level."

"The fact that you're thinking about your own mate, and about that light-sucking fuckface at the same time, is actually a little worrisome."

"I worry about Sting," Rogue chuckled. "I don't think he'll ever care about finding a mate."

"I'm not either," Cobra scoffed. "I just want to know why there were fucking scales on her stomach. Because if my poisoning her while we were fucking is going to kill her, I'd like to know." If that was the case, he needed to get out to Sun Village and see if there was some way to get the poison out of Flare. Cobra couldn't understand why she wouldn't have already died from it, though. His poison was a pretty quick and effective method of murder. But it had been nearly a month, by his count, and she was still alive.

' _He used his magic while they were… Oh…'_

"Yes," Rogue said. "Well, I feel like you should understand the process of taking a mate-"

"Just cut to the fucking chase, already," Cobra growled.

"Fine," he sighed. "The thing is…"

* * *

By the time Rogue had finished explaining, Cobra could feel his asshole trembling with the need to shit himself. He was sure his face had gone completely white somewhere near the beginning. He'd stayed silent, listening to every syllable that passed the Shadow Slayer's lips as he'd continued with his explanation. He'd answered every question directed at him with honesty, because he could hear in Rogue's soul that he already knew the answers anyway. And through it all, Cobra was well and truly fucking scared.

"It usually happens right after you mark your mate, but not always," Rogue said.

"Sh-She's… You're sure she's…"

"Pregnant, yes," Rogue replied. "While having sex, you poisoned her. Her body accepted your magic, reacted to it, and then you bit her and poisoned her again. The scales are a form of protection for the baby, and they'll grow with her body until the birth, then fall off when they're no longer needed."

Cobra was so fucking dead. He couldn't be a father. He definitely couldn't raise a fucking kid with Flare. It wasn't like he could just settle down with her. Giant souls were something he could deal with for a time, if he really needed to, but he couldn't live in a place like that indefinitely. He couldn't have a child at all. What kind of parent would he even be? He didn't even know if he wanted kids. Or if he really even liked them to begin with. What if he had this kid with her, and he just fucking hated it? Could he really disappear on her and their child forever? Cobra didn't even know how he felt about being the absent father in this hypothetical situation.

But Flare couldn't be his mate. She was supposed to have some sort of mark on her aside from those scales, and he hadn't seen anything like that. "A-And the mating mark?"

"It should be where you bit her. It's different for every mated couple."

"Different, how?"

"I've only ever seen Minerva's," Rogue said, never taking his gaze from Cobra's wide-eyed, vacant stare. "It's a sort of tribal mark on her-"

"I don't need to know." Of course, it was too late. Rogue pictured it, which allowed Cobra to see it in its entirety. The black, wisping tribal markings that curved around the underside of Minerva's breasts like wings and met in a small scar in the center of her chest, shaped like Rogue's teeth.

"If she's pregnant, you really should be with her," Rogue said, cutting into Cobra's mental reprimand of his magic's abilities. "You're supposed to be close, so you can bond and strengthen the mating mark."

"I haven't been with her in a fucking month," Cobra whispered. He wasn't sure if he was talking to himself, or to Rogue.

"Well, you should have already bonded before marking her, so that will be able to sustain both of you until you're able to get back to her."

"I was only with her for a week before it happened," Cobra said. Slowly, his eye focused and he turned to look at Rogue again. Except this time, knowing that he had most likely marked and mated with Flare without her even knowing it, that he'd impregnated her and left her to her own devices, he was actually terrified of what would happen. "I met her when she dragged me out of a desert and kept my ass from dying. We don't even really know each other…"

Rogue's soul went quiet for seconds that felt like whole hours. Cobra watched in slow motion as his eyes widened and his jaw went slack. His long-emptied cup slipped from his hands and fell to the thick carpet with a soft, low thud. "You mean to tell me, you didn't bond with her?"

"I don't fucking _know_ her!"

"Cobra, you need to be with her," he said urgently. _'This isn't good. She could die. He could… Fuck, this isn't good. He needs to go now!'_

"Why?" It wasn't that he was all that opposed to being around Flare. He liked her. He'd told her that he hadn't wanted to leave, and it had been the truth. Cobra hadn't understood at the time, just why a part of him had wanted to stay with her when his guild had showed up. But if he was really mated to her, that must be the reason.

"She needs you," Rogue said. "When you mark your mate, there's a time afterward for you two to bond. It's not always sexual, though. Just being around each other, touching, even if it's the backs of your hands, is essential to strengthening that bond. Without that… and with her being pregnant…"

Rogue didn't have to finish speaking though. Cobra heard it all. This separation could kill her. The baby would leech off of Flare in more than just the nutrients she took in. It would feed on her magic to grow its own magical container. And without Cobra there, poisoning her, feeding his own magic into their bond, the baby would die. Or it would kill Flare in the effort of trying to stay alive. It would probably kill both of them.

Even worse was what Rogue was thinking about concerning his end of this shitstorm. If he lost his mate, regardless of how he felt about her, those instincts Rogue had mentioned would tear him up inside. He would lose himself entirely. Cobra would be as good as dead.

' _I just don't understand why he's not already affected by this.'_

"Is that why I haven't been able to eat much lately?" Cobra asked. Maybe that was why he'd gotten that cold that he hadn't been able to shake lately. His brain was working overtime to figure out some solution to this fucking mess. He didn't really want Flare to die, but he wasn't sure if he cared all that much about some accidental baby not making it. And he definitely didn't want to wind up dead, himself. Maybe if she wasn't pregnant, she'd be alright without him being right there with her.

"It's part of being separated from your mate too soon," Rogue replied. What he didn't say, however, was that Cobra should have been going crazy from his instincts pushing him to return to Flare. That actually made Cobra chuckle just a little bit.

"I've been insane for a long fucking time," he said. "Some lacrima can't even touch what's wrong with my head."

"This is serious, Cobra."

"I know," he said, his small smirk melting away into a scowl. "I'll handle it. Finding out she's my mate is enough." And he figured it would be a good idea to tell Flare what was even happening. Although he was just a bit surprised that she hadn't mentioned any sort of mark where he'd bitten her. Or those scales on her stomach. Maybe she hadn't even realized she was pregnant yet.

With a final nod to himself, Cobra stood from the couch and left Sting's office without a word. Rogue followed several steps behind him until they reached the main guild hall.

"Cobra, if you need more information…"

"I know where to look," he said with a nod over his shoulder as he kept walking away. "Thanks."

Cobra didn't really thank people all that often for shit, but this was a bit more important. He'd gotten a crash course in this magic he'd never asked for, and now he knew just how much it had really changed him. It was more than just his dull brown hair turning red, his eyes changing to a deep purple, his teeth becoming sharper and more pointed. It was something so much more than him being able to ingest poison and kill people with a single breath.

This lacrima had given him just one more thing he wasn't sure if he really wanted. A mate.

* * *

"I told you to leave me the hell alone," Cobra growled. His gaze never wavered from his moonlit path through the woods, away from Crime Sorciere's camp.

"I couldn't just let you go wandering off by yourself," Meredy replied. She picked up in speed so she was directly behind him, walking in the steps he left behind. That was the safest route since she couldn't see all that well.

"You actually fucking could have."

"No," she sighed. "Because a certain _someone_ thought it would be a good idea to sneak out."

"I've got somewhere to go."

"Where is it?"

"That's of no importance to you," he snarled over his shoulder. Cobra understood that Meredy was just trying to get to know him better. But he didn't want to be her replacement for Ultear. Whether she was aware of it or not, he didn't care, but that was exactly what she was doing.

"Cobra, why don't you just tell me?"

"Because I don't fucking want you here," he said. He'd considered telling Jellal or Midnight what he was planning, but there was no point. Cobra didn't give a shit about some dark guild they were supposed to be scouting the next day. He'd talked with Rogue and gotten the information he needed, and if he'd been a little more aware of his surroundings at the time, then he would have realized that Meredy had followed him to Sabertooth. Except he'd been just a little preoccupied while going there, wondering what was happening with Flare. And afterwards, all he could think about was how long it would take to get to Sun Village from where they were at. And that he needed to get his hands on a map.

Considering he only had a vague idea of where it was - he hadn't really been paying too much attention when he'd left the place before while riding on Midnight's flying carpet - he really hoped it was on a map. Or that there was some sort of desert shown on the map that he could start at.

"Why are you going toward Sun Village?" Meredy asked. When he didn't say a word, she sighed and picked up the pace just a little bit to tap on his shoulder. Cobra shifted out of the way, and again when she tried a second time to just catch the fabric of his cloak. "Cobra, are you going to see Flare?"

He was still silent. Meredy kind of hated when he got all broody like this. But it was the first time since they'd left Sun Village that he even had energy to do more than trudge along with their group. Ever since they'd listened in on his call with Flare that one night, he'd seemed a little more like himself. Ever since seeing his meltdown, Meredy had been worried about him. He hadn't even had the energy to argue with her when she tried doting on him. There had been a few choice words for her, but nothing else. Now that he was actually willing to tell her to fuck off, she couldn't help but smile just a little bit. Cobra was really back to normal.

"I'm not going to Sun Village," he lied.

Meredy's smile just widened. "Yeah, sure you're not," she said. "You just packed up your tent and took your bag like a runaway kid, and now you're disappearing to, what? Go on a shopping spree?"

"You caught me," he said with a smirk that just wouldn't stay hidden. "I'm a shopaholic. There's a sale on pumps in Crocus, and I absolutely need to get my fucking hands on them."

Meredy snorted when she caught a glimpse of his eye in the darkness of the forest they were trudging through. "I knew it," she giggled. "You're a real sucker for those six-inch fuck me pumps, aren't you?"

"I truly am." Cobra's steps slowed as the minutes passed in silence until he finally stopped and turned toward her. "Tell me why you're following me."

Meredy knew there was no point in lying about it - he would hear the truth anyway - but it was a bit of a surprise for him to actually _ask_ her. Cobra could hear her reasons for coming. There wasn't any reason for him to ask. Still, she cleared her throat and straightened under his intense glare. "I don't know what's going on with you, but I've been worried about you. We all have been," she said. "And now you're disappearing in the middle of the night for no reason. I want to make sure you're going to be okay."

"And?"

She crossed her arms beneath her bust and found a few leaves on the ground wholly interesting. Much more interesting than having to look him in the eye. "When I was little, my whole town was destroyed. I found out later on that Grimoire Heart had done it. I didn't have many friends, but there was this boy…"

Cobra frowned as the foggy memory drifted through her soul, watching as a sad smile pulled at her lips.

"He had such pale skin, and his hair was… it was so blonde, it was almost white. He didn't really talk to anyone, but when some of the bigger kids had pushed me down in the street, he came out and chased them away with a stick." Her fingers tightly grasped at her arms while she tried to remember just a little more about that boy. She couldn't even remember his name anymore. Maybe she'd never known it to begin with.

"I'm not that fucking kid," Cobra said, narrowing his eye.

"I know," she laughed. "But he was nice to me, and he was my friend for a little while before Grimoire Heart came. I don't know why, Cobra, but when I'm around you, I feel like I'm with that boy again."

If he hadn't been able to hear it in her soul, Cobra probably would have thought this was some crazy love confession. But Meredy hadn't had a crush on the boy. She'd been too young at the time to even comprehend that sort of feeling to begin with. He'd simply been a good friend of hers when she'd had so few. And considering she really didn't remember much about her life before Ultear had taken her under her wing, it was no wonder she couldn't remember the kid's name.

"I know... I know you don't really trust people, even Midnight and Angel. They take care of you when you have a nightmare, but you still don't trust them."

"I've got no reason to," he said.

She laughed and shook her head. "Jellal says I should stop trying to replace Ultear with you. She was like a mother to me, y'know? Losing her was… devastating."

"So I've heard."

"But that's not what I'm doing with you. I just want to be your friend. I mean, I feel like maybe you could be a kind of brother to me, but I won't push that on you... I just want you to open up to someone. I mean, you hear all these souls, and you're smart and funny - even though you're kinda twisted about it - but you never talk to anyone."

"I don't like talking. And I don't like people. They're fucking annoying."

She bit her lips and let out a slow breath through her nose, but Meredy really wasn't sure what to say.

"I don't like you all that much either," he continued, and the way her shoulders sagged just a little bit made his brow lift with curiosity. She had to have known he didn't fucking like her. He didn't like anyone. Well, Kinana was an exception, but they didn't talk all that often. He tolerated the people in his guild - both in the Oracion Seis and now in Crime Sorciere - but that was all. "I can't fucking stand listening to the bubblegum bullshit in your soul. It's loud, and obnoxious, and makes me want to shove a skewer in your brain to see if a lobotomy will make you calm the fuck down."

"... Oh."

"Honestly, if I didn't have to hear your soul ever again-"

"Okay, I get it," she muttered.

"- wouldn't be soon enough. Do you have any fucking clue-"

"I said I get it!"

"- annoying as fuck when I'm trying to-"

"Cobra, shut up!" she finally screeched. The fact that he really did stop talking was just a bit surprising, but when she looked up at him only to see a malicious glint in his eye, she fought back a bout of angry tears. He'd made his point pretty well. That hadn't been necessary at all.

"You said I should talk more," he pointed out. "Just because you don't like what I have to say, I should stay quiet now?"

"You're just saying it to be mean."

"That's pretty much my fucking default. If you can't handle it, then turn back and leave me the hell alone." His hand lifted and he roughly jabbed her shoulder, nearly knocking her off balance. "I never asked you to come with me. I don't _want_ you here."

"And why not?"

"Because I don't need your bullshit when I've got enough on my mind as it is."

"Like what?" she asked with a frown. That was different. Had Cobra actually just opened up the tiniest bit, and told her something he hadn't meant to?

"It's none of your damn business," he snarled.

"But you-"

"I said leave it alone."

"But Cobra," she said, reaching out to grab his arm before he could turn away from her. She'd expected him to move - he always did - but Meredy really hadn't expected the sudden flash of pain across her cheek, or to stumble back a couple steps and trip over a tree root. She bounced on the ground and a smooth rock dug into her rear while she stared up at him in surprise. "Did you just… slap me?"

"Don't fucking touch me," he spat. Cobra towered over her with a heavy, malevolent glare. "The last thing I need is _you_ coming along and trying to fucking _help_ me. I don't want it, and I don't fucking need it. All you're doing is wasting my goddamn time, when I need to get going!"

"But you slapped me…" She'd never known Cobra to hit a woman before. When he started yelling at her or Angel over something, he never hit them. He backhanded Racer more times than she could count, but he'd never laid a hand on her before. She hissed while pressing a hand to her cheek, gently prodding at the red, heated flesh.

"I don't know how the hell you need me to put it so you can get it through your thick fucking skull," he said. "Leave me alone. I don't want you coming along. I don't need you. I fucking _hate_ you, Meredy, so just fuck off and go back to Jellal and everyone else who actually gives a shit about you. I'm not your friend, or your brother, and I never fucking will be! So leave me alone!"

Meredy simply stared as he turned and walked away from her, through the woods and off into the darkness beyond. She wasn't sure what to do, what to say to him. Part of her wanted to call out to him, but she already knew that he wouldn't listen to her. Cobra didn't listen to anyone. Maybe she'd romanticized the type of person he really was, and maybe he made her feel the way she'd felt about that boy from her childhood because she _wanted_ him to fill that role.

Maybe there was nothing more to the Poison Dragon Slayer than just what she'd seen right then. Maybe there wasn't really any good in him after all.

Slowly Meredy stood and clasped her hands over her chest while looking up the tree canopy obscuring the night sky. Thinking there was nothing good in Cobra was probably what everyone thought of him.

"Is that why you're so angry all the time?" she sighed into the quiet night air. "Because no one believes in you?"

Her eyes slid closed for a moment, and a slow smile spread across her plump lips. When they opened again, she turned and started carefully making her way through the woods. All she could hope was that she didn't get herself lost. That would definitely be unpleasant.


	4. Here Comes the Sun

**A/N: Welcome to the final chapter for this part of the series, everyone. I'm so sorry that you had to wait more than a year for this update. But enough with the apologies! Let's get down to business!**

* * *

 _ **Here Comes the Sun**_

* * *

It was strange to be back in Sun Village for Cobra. Everything looked just the same as it had when he'd left. There were giants milling about, smiling at one another as they lumbered through the wide streets and milled about. He wasn't really sure just what they did, or why no one really knew about their existence. It seemed like this was something people would be interested in knowing about.

Then again, these giants preferred to keep to themselves. That was probably why their village was in the middle of the fucking desert, where no humans would be dumb enough to venture.

It also had him wondering how Flare had even ended up in a place like this.

"Cobra, you have to be dying of thirst by now," Meredy groaned from a few feet behind him.

He rolled his eye and unhooked his canteen from his belt, then tossed it behind him. He really wasn't all that thirsty, but she was starting to get dehydrated. And while he hadn't wanted to have her following him for the past week just to get here, Cobra also hadn't wanted to waste anymore time in trying to get Meredy to leave him the hell alone.

Besides, she'd gotten the idea to steal an SE vehicle three days into their journey, and it had seriously cut down on their travel time. If they'd walked, it would have easily taken two whole weeks just to get here. He supposed he could at least give her credit for that. While Meredy hadn't known why he was storming away from Crime Sorciere on a direct path to find Flare, she'd been able to tell that it was urgent. Urgent enough that, when she broke away from him and proceeded to steal the SE vehicle herself - subsequently peeling out and scaring the everloving shit out of him when she came to a screeching halt in front of him just outside of a town - Meredy had put the pedal to the floor and used up every ounce of magic she could spare to get them here as quickly as possible.

When she couldn't take it anymore, she'd pulled over and said she just needed to rest for a minute. But Cobra knew the truth. He'd gotten out and walked around the car, then carefully moved her to the passenger seat and took the wheel himself.

Sure, there had been a bit of a learning curve for a few miles - he'd never actually driven one of those things before - but he'd gotten the hang of it relatively quickly. And with each mile that flew past them, bringing him closer to Flare, he'd felt a little more of his soul relax.

Oddly enough, his instincts were making him feel as though they just wouldn't get there in time. That he'd be too late, and find her lying dead on the ground.

Fuck, maybe he should've called her on the lacrima to see how she was doing.

Cobra was about to take another step forward when he heard her soul. He'd grown so used to the way it called out for him that it had become nothing more than background noise. Sometimes. But since he'd been on his way toward her, he hadn't tried listening to what it was telling him. And now… Now he couldn't stop hearing it. Not necessarily what she was thinking about, but he _felt_ the way her soul shrieked with fear. Why the hell was she scared? It wasn't the sort of fear that someone felt when they saw a spider unexpectedly crawling on the wall. This was deeper than that, more intense.

He hadn't realized he'd stopped until Meredy walked right into him. Before she could ask what was wrong, his feet were moving. First at a brisk walk, then a jog, and suddenly he was running as quickly as he could, easily navigating the streets to get to where Flare was.

Cobra didn't care if Meredy followed. Something terrifying surged up within him, a burning, venomous rage the likes of which he'd never felt before. Whatever it was that had scared Flare like this would die.

There was no time for him to question why he wanted to protect her. He didn't wonder if it was because she was his mate and carrying his baby. At that point, he didn't fucking care why he barreled through her closed bedroom door, breaking the wood from its hinges.

He found her there, alone. No one was around her, and there was no immediate threat he could see. But after a moment, he realized that she was naked, save for the towel hanging from her hands that he was sure had been used to dry herself off after her shower. With how her hair was still dripping, that had to be it.

His eye trailed over her from the top of her head down to her bare feet. And as his gaze moved back up, he noticed something that had his blood running cold. Right there beneath her navel, where the crimson scales should have been spreading from one hip to the other. And then he smelled blood in the air, noticed how it trailed down her inner thigh, and how the grey towel in her hands was already spotted with it. Then over to her futon with the sheets removed, piled on the floor with large stains on them.

"Flare," he whispered.

"I-I don't know what's wrong," she sniffled. She dropped the towel and her hand lightly touched the scales. His stomach turned when several crumbled and flaked at her touch. "It hurts."

"Fuck," he hissed. Cobra rushed into the room and pulled her into his arms. And as soon as she was pressed against his chest, her soul opened up to him fully. She knew, deep down, what was happening. She just didn't want to accept that it had really happened in the first place, that she'd really gotten pregnant at all. And she definitely didn't want to consider the fact that she was in the process of miscarrying.

But she couldn't really deny it. Her body knew. She was feeling it. And the longer he held her, the less she could deny the truth.

She didn't sob wildly, and she didn't scream, but her legs gave out so suddenly as she began to cry that Cobra barely had time to catch her.

"Tell me it's not true," Flare cried.

"I'm sorry," he said, nestling his nose in her hair. "Flare, I'm so fucking sorry I wasn't here."

"Tell me it's n-not…" He didn't hear Meredy stumbling into the room, or how she gasped while taking in the scene before her. "I'm not… Cobra, tell me-"

His lips puckered against her forehead while he carefully lowered her to the floor, keeping his arms around her. "You lost the baby," he said softly. "I'm so fucking sorry."

"B-But I wasn't… I couldn't…"

He shook his head as she latched onto him and cried harder. Fuck, he didn't know what to do now. How the hell was he supposed to handle this? For once, Cobra was lost. He didn't have the answers he needed, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to make this better. "It's not your fault," he said gently, pulling in a trembling breath as he fought back the tears welling on his own lashes. "I'm here now, Gingerbread. It's gonna be okay, I promise."

' _She was pregnant,'_ Meredy thought. _'And she lost… It wasn't that long ago that he was here. It had to have been his baby. But Cobra seems to know that.'_

"Meredy, just go," he said softly. "Not now."

"N-No, it's alright," Meredy said, drawing Flare's attention. She gave the sobbing Hair mage a gentle smile, wiping at her own teary cheeks. "Flare, I can help."

Cobra's eye opened into a glare sent her way when she took a step into the room. "I said fuck off," he growled.

Meredy shook her head and reached up to unclasp her cloak. She came forward and slowly draped it over Flare's shoulders. While kneeling next to both of them, she met Cobra's gaze with a sad smile. "This happened to Ultear before," she said. His eye widened, and she paused to reach into her pack for some painkillers that she'd been holding onto for the next time she had killer cramps from hell. "We didn't talk about it, but…"

Cobra's jaw dropped slightly as he read the truth from her soul. Siegrain. More accurately, Jellal when he'd still been brainwashed and thinking that he needed to finish the Tower of Heaven. When he'd been using a thought projection to dupe the Council into thinking Siegrain was one of the good guys... He'd actually fucked Ultear and had gotten her pregnant. And she'd been ready to keep the fucking baby and raise it with Meredy as its older sister, but then she'd miscarried.

" _Meredy, I'll be alright," Ultear said through her tears. "We'll just pretend it's a really bad period, okay?"_

" _But Ultear…"_

" _I doubt I was ever meant to have children," she laughed. It quickly turned into heaving sobs, and Meredy rushed forward and wrapped her arms around the older mage._

" _But I'm your daughter," Meredy whispered. "You don't need anyone else."_

" _That's true," Ultear said. Even through her tears, she smiled down at Meredy. "And you're the best daughter a mother could ask for."_

Meredy simply nodded. "You heard it," she said. She didn't question whether or not he knew the truth. "So you know, I can help. Please, Cobra… Please let me help her."

Slowly, he nodded. His grip on Flare loosened, but she stayed right where she was, even wrapping her arms around him for good measure.

"Flare, we're gonna act like it's a period, alright?" Meredy said tenderly. "But you'll need to wear pads."

"I-I don't… use those," Flare whimpered.

"What do you normally use?" Meredy asked.

Flare curled in on herself slightly, her cheeks burning a bright red. She stayed silent though, and even though Cobra could hear her soul so much more clearly than ever before, he kept it to himself.

"It's alright," Meredy said with a gentle smile. "It's natural, Flare. You don't have to be embarrassed."

"I-I don't use anything," she finally whispered. "I just… let it happen."

Meredy blinked in surprise, and she couldn't stop herself from staring for a moment. "As in…"

"She free-bleeds," Cobra said.

"Oh," Meredy said, her eyes widening further. "I-I've never met anyone who does that."

"You don't?" Flare asked, wincing.

Meredy shook her head. "I use pads. Sorano uses those weird little period cup things."

While Cobra really didn't feel like getting stuck listening to their menstrual regimens, he could hear how it was helping Flare relax. Mostly because she'd literally never had this sort of conversation with another woman before. All the giants were men around here, from what he'd seen, and there had been very little for her in the way of reproductive education until she'd left Sun Village and joined a guild.

Finally, he pressed a gentle kiss to her hair, drawing her teary gaze up to his face. Cobra gave her a small smile, brushed away the tear tracks on her cheek. "Stay with Meredy," he said gently. "I'll put sheets down, and we'll get you comfortable."

"You won't go, will you?" she whimpered.

"Hell no," he chuckled. "We've got a lot of shit to talk about later on. For now, just rest and relax, okay?"

"And drinking lots of water," Meredy said. She fixed her cloak over Flare's shoulders while Cobra stood and started moving around the room to pick up the already stained sheets and replace them on the futon lying in the corner. She offered Flare the painkillers and Cobra's canteen that still had water in it. "This will help with the cramping."

"Am I gonna be okay?" Flare asked, staring at the little pills in her hand. She popped them into her mouth and took a large gulp of water.

"You'll be fine," Meredy said with a gentle smile. "Cobra will be able to smell it if anything changes. He's really good at picking up on infections."

"Kept you from getting gangrene when you got a splinter in your fucking foot," he chuckled from where he knelt in the corner. "You're welcome."

"Yes, you saved my life," she said, rolling her eyes. "You're truly a saint."

Once he was finished, and had taken the sullied sheets out of the room to deal with later, Cobra knelt by them and pulled Flare into his arms. "Time to lay down," he said.

Flare squeaked when he picked her up, and she stared up at him while he carried her over to the futon and carefully set her down. Before she could ask if he would stay, he turned to look at Meredy.

"Call Jellal and tell him where we are," he said, reaching up and unfastening his cloak to get more comfortable. "They'll need to stop and pick up some things to make her more comfortable."

Meredy nodded and left the room right away, pausing to grab the door that Cobra had broken down and prop it over the doorway as best as she could so they could have some privacy. She walked further down the hall and turned at another open doorway, and found herself in a dusty, unused room that she and Sorano had slept in when they'd stayed here more than a month ago.

Meredy sat down on the floor and pulled out her lacrima, then called Jellal.

"Meredy, where are you?" he asked urgently once he saw her face. "Where's Cobra?"

As soon as she saw the concern shining in his eyes, her tears broke free. "We're in Sun Village," she sniffled. "Flare was pregnant and she lost the baby, a-and… Cobra said to call you."

"He what?"

She nodded. "Jellal, something's going on. I don't know why he came back here, but… You guys need to come. Fast."

* * *

By the time Crime Sorciere arrived, it was late into the night. Jellal had used his magic to teleport them as far as he could, which left only a few miles for them to travel to get into the village. Meredy met them at the large gate that loomed high overhead, and the group was quiet while she led them toward Flare's room.

Only Midnight and Jellal followed her past the rooms where the rest of the guild would be sleeping. They carried the supplies Meredy had told them to bring - extra blankets, pouches of rice that could be warmed up to use as a heating pad, more painkillers, and a fair bit of chocolate that Flare could eat as comfort food (which, Meredy hoped that she liked chocolate to begin with) - and followed her lead as she quietly made her way closer to Flare's room.

Jellal watched with a raised brow as she lifted the broken door and moved it off to the side. She put a finger to her lips to remind them to be quiet, then waved them inside.

What Jellal hadn't expected to see was Cobra fast asleep on a futon mat on the floor with Flare in his arms. He should have anticipated it, to be honest, but it still threw him for a loop. And if that wasn't enough of a shock, then the soft smile on Cobra's lips and the fact that he was very clearly shirtless with Flare's hair draped over the both of them, definitely was.

Midnight smirked while they set down the supplies, glancing at the Poison Slayer again. He couldn't help but notice how her hair shifted as though it was alive, how it tightened around Cobra only slightly while his nose nestled in the crook of her neck. "Her hair is her magic?" he whispered.

"Yeah," Meredy whispered back.

Flare groaned and her face pinched with discomfort, and before anyone could wonder what was wrong, or if she would wake up, Cobra's hand shifted down to the few scales still on her stomach. He gently massaged her until she relaxed once again.

"He's passed out," Jellal breathed.

"He never sleeps like this," Midnight said with a nod.

Meredy smiled at the pair of sleeping mages. "Must be her magic hair."

* * *

The next day, Flare didn't notice the members of Crime Sorciere milling about, or how they had split up and gotten into conversations with the giants she considered her family. She and Cobra spent their morning lying on the futon, ignoring the stained sheet beneath them and simply talking to one another.

She wasn't really sure how to handle the information Cobra gave her about them being mated. Or how she'd been sucking down his poison when they'd fucked, because they were fated to be together. Or that she should have paid more attention to those scales on her stomach - she'd only just noticed them a few days prior and had honestly thought she was having an allergic reaction to something.

It was just really hard to get her brain wrapped around the concept of someone like Cobra being the perfect person for her. And it probably didn't help that he seemed pretty damn unsure of the validity of it in the first place.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through," he said again. He'd been apologizing so much lately. She wasn't sure how to handle that, either. "If I hadn't left, this wouldn't have happened."

"But you had to go," she said, frowning as his fingers trailed down her spine.

"I didn't, really," he said. For the briefest of moments, he looked uncomfortable. "I figured I needed to, though. It was… really hard to leave."

"Why?"

"Because we'd mated," he said. "Rogue told me about it. I wasn't supposed to leave you. And I'm the reason you lost the baby."

She honestly didn't know what to say to that. It wasn't like she really blamed him for the baby dying. "I'm probably not meant to have them anyway," she finally sighed. And that was the truth. Flare had always assumed that she would never have children. When she was just a child, she'd grown up with the giants, and she'd known that she wasn't like them. And when she'd left Sun Village, the world and her place in Raven Tail hadn't made her all that hopeful of procreating.

She'd never really wanted kids to begin with.

And Flare was positive that the last thing she wanted or needed right then was to have a baby to take care of.

"Besides," she continued, "We barely even know each other, so it'd be weird to try and raise a kid with you." Flare's frown deepened and she found herself looking away from his glimmering indigo eye. "Or without you, if you hadn't come back."

"Well, we both know now that I would've had to, one way or another," he said softly.

As she looked up into his eye, Flare couldn't tell if she was supposed to feel relieved at hearing that. She wanted to, she really did. Except, it wasn't all that comforting to know that they didn't have a say in whether or not they would be together. He didn't really want to be here with her, she knew, it was just that something about fate had made it so they were supposedly meant to be together.

Apparently, they weren't supposed to have a baby just yet though.

Cobra surprised her when his thumb brushed across her cheek. "If you need to cry, I get it," he whispered.

"I'm not going to cry."

A small smile lifted his lips then. "I hate when women cry," he said. "Hurts my ears." Her brows drew together as he kept stroking her cheek. Hadn't he just told her that she could cry if she needed to? "But you're different. And the last thing I'm gonna do is fucking complain about that when-"

"I'm not going to cry," she said again, frowning up at him. What did she have to cry about? So what if she'd lost a baby she hadn't even wanted? So what if the man holding her, who she'd hoped would one day come back to her and take away her loneliness that grew with each passing day, had only granted her wish because he hadn't had a choice in the matter? So what if she knew that they would never really be happy together, because this wasn't what he really wanted?

She didn't have a thing to cry over. This was just her lot in life. This was the way things had always gone for her.

All that time she'd spent, feeling like an outcast before leaving Sun Village had prepared her for this. The years she'd spent in Raven Tail, secretly terrified of the world around her, but not letting anyone see the truth and hiding behind the new and improved Flare she'd created, had prepared her for this.

"Gingerbread-"

"I-I'm not," she whimpered. She tried to fight it when his hand pressed tenderly against the back of her head. Her stomach tightened, and just as she moved to push his hand away, there was a stark reminder of just what she'd lost - through no fault of her own, she silently told herself - running in a slow, thin rivulet down the front of her thigh. "I won't cry," she sniffled.

"It's alright," Cobra said. His arms wrapped more tightly around her, pulling her flush against his chest. She struggled even more when she realized that he was still wearing pants, and her blood was soaking into the fabric. "You can't hide from me."

"I'm not t-trying to-" Her next inhale shuddered, and she whimpered when pain speared through her stomach and down to her knees. The first sob broke free when he reached down and gently massaged just below her navel, breaking loose the last of the scales that - as she'd learned - were supposed to protect the child she'd failed.

She collapsed against him, curled into his chest, and finally let the anger and bitterness swelling inside her out in a torrent of uncontrollable tears. And Cobra simply kept holding her, ignoring how something inside of him ached at hearing her so broken.

* * *

Hours later, as the sun began drifting down toward the horizon, Cobra and Flare stood before the altar to the Eternal Flame. They hadn't spoken all that much since she'd cried in his arms. He wasn't sure if she just didn't know what to say, and he hadn't wanted to pry.

Cobra hated that he felt so lost when dealing with her right then.

But then she'd finally spoken. She asked him if he saw the great fire dragon during the Grand Magic Games who had come through the Eclipse Gate. Cobra hadn't seen it, and he'd told her as much, but then Flare had smiled that shy little smile, and asked if he wanted to see it.

Of course, he'd been intrigued. Cobra ignored the stains on his pants - there had been worse blood stains on his clothes before, from his own mildly murderous tendencies - and waited for Flare to get herself dressed. She'd led him away from her room and out into the village, through streets that weren't bustling with activity from the giants, and finally up the side of a mountain to this shrine.

Cobra hadn't known what to expect, but he'd kind of hoped there would have been an actual dragon there. Instead it was a shrine to what Flare and the giants saw as their village's protector.

She'd even told him the story about how their village came to be, how Atlas Flame protected them and granted her magic. It was the first time he'd been able to see her setting her hair on fire in person.

In turn, Cobra told her about his own magic. He wasn't sure what it was that had him opening up, but it just felt… right, somehow. So, he told her how he'd been born with Soul Listening magic, how he'd gotten the lacrima because of Brain, and how he'd sacrificed his eye to add Sound magic to his arsenal. She listened and she asked a couple questions - mostly about his Sound magic, which was interesting - and he'd even showed her some of what he could do with it.

But then she looked up at him, and he heard what he was sure she'd been hoping to keep to herself as her soul warbled with dread.

' _Why is he acting like there could be more for us?'_

That really was a good question. He knew he didn't love her. There wasn't a whole lot of anything that he felt for her, honestly. He just… wanted to be around her. He wanted to know why seeing her in pain hurt him too, and if it was just this mating bullshit they'd been forced into or something more. Whatever it was that he had with Flare wasn't love, or anything close to it. She was sexy, sure, and her soul was interesting when he could hear it… but he didn't know much about her past that and the bits of information she'd told him already.

He didn't even know why she lived in a village full of giants.

The sudden tightening in his gut was foreign and strange, but oddly comforting as it forced him to say something he'd never thought he would. "Leave with me."

Flare stared at him, her eyes wide and a little horrified. "What?"

"When you're okay to travel, leave Sun Village with me," he said, clearer this time.

"I can't."

"What's keeping you here?" he asked as she took a small step back from him. He didn't try to follow, but he noticed how that one step brought her closer to the ring of stones that had once held a vibrant fire.

"The giants are my family," she said. "I can't leave them."

"How?" he asked. "What is it, exactly, that you contribute by being here?"

"The Eternal Flame gave me this magic," she said, never looking away from his eye. "Now that he's gone, I have to protect them."

"You're just a human. The giants can protect themselves."

She scowled at him then. "They were frozen until Blondie and her friends came to help them. I wasn't here to protect them then, and-"

"Gingerbread, how did you even get here?" It was a question he'd had burning in his mind ever since finding out that she lived with giants.

She took another step back. "They found me," she said. "I don't know where I came from, but they found me in an abandoned caravan. They raised me."

He frowned and took a step closer to her, forcing his magic out and delving into the bits of her soul that he could latch onto. "What kind of caravan?"

"I don't know," she said, backing away from him. She gasped when her legs bumped into the Eternal Flame's altar, and Cobra advanced until his hands rested on her shoulders.

"Let me listen," he said. "Don't you care where you came from?"

"No," she said, trying to shake him off. "Sun Village is my home. The giants-"

Cobra ignored her after that, strengthening his magic and weaving together the fragmented bits of her soul that he could hear. With each passing second, it grew stronger. Her soul became clearer the longer he looked into her wide, burnished orange eyes. "How old were you?" he whispered.

If he could get her to think about it, then it would be easier to pinpoint.

"Five…"

So long ago… and she had no memories before then. Maybe not consciously, but her soul knew. A person's soul never forgot, regardless of the trauma that the mind erased. It was one thing Cobra had always been able to count on when it came to torturing people. Bringing up a painful past was one of his specialties. But he didn't want to torture her. He just had to know.

"Were there people with you?"

"I don't know."

"What do you remember?" he asked.

"I don't remember anything," she whimpered.

She was lying, in a sense. Flare didn't know on the surface, but he caught the whisper of a memory that had been buried deep within her soul. And once he did, he held tightly to it, dug deeper, and finally… he heard the truth.

" _... Can't believe we're working for a kid… But Jellal's the boss, and we have to do this to resurrect Zeref…"_

" _Think these kids will be good enough?"_

" _... True, just more bodies until they give out…"_

" _Fuck, are we lost? Should we be in a desert?..."_

" _... Need water so bad…"_

" _...Fuck, shut those kids up with their crying! Want me to come back there?!"_

 _She squinted against the suddenly bright light surrounding her. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the dark and the heat, but something large wrapped around her whole body and lifted her into the air._

" _This one's alive!" a booming voice bellowed._

 _She looked toward the quickly disappearing ground and saw the bloated, decaying bodies of the other children who had been chained to her in the back of the caravan. They all looked so… wrong. A piercing shriek filled the air, and it took several moments for her to realize that it was coming from her small, weary body._

Cobra blinked and took a small step back from her. "They really did find you," he said.

Flare just nodded. She still didn't remember. She didn't remember any of what he'd heard though. She didn't remember being abducted by the same fucking cult that had snagged the other members of his guild and forced them into hard labor. She didn't remember the other children that had been stolen with her, or seeing their little bodies when the bastards who had kidnapped them… left them for dead, baking to death with no water, chained in the back of that caravan. She didn't remember just when she was found, seeing those corpses and screaming until her throat was raw and bloody.

"Leave with me," he said again.

"I won't leave them again," she said. "I left once before, and I hated what I found."

That had him remembering what Kinana had told him about Flare before he'd finally gotten the courage to call her. He'd been confused as hell when Kinana had said that there were two Flares, but it eventually did make sense. He'd seen both of them for himself, after all. And he knew from experience what it was like to have to hide.

"The world is a scary fucking place," he said. "I know, I've been living in it - and running from it - for years." His hands trailed down from her shoulders as she stared up at him in confusion. Once he had her slender fingers in his grasp, Cobra broke their prolonged eye contact to look at her hands as he lifted them in the small space between them. "I'm terrified of what's out there, but the one thing that I've figured out between running from Rune Knights and trying to forget about the Tower…"

His thumbs brushed across her knuckles, and he chuckled when a lock of her hair brushed across his scarred cheek.

"It's not so bad if you've got people who really give a damn on your side," he finished.

It was the truth, and something he'd come to realize in the past day. When he thought about how much help Meredy had been, how she'd ignored his insults and how he'd actually fucking hit her (which… he really did need to apologize for that major lapse in judgment, now that he thought about it), how she'd made sure he got to Flare faster than he would have on his own… Cobra knew that it was because Meredy cared about him, even though he tried to push her away. Jellal and the rest of his guild had come running when they found out where Cobra and Meredy had disappeared to, not only because they didn't know whether Cobra had gone off the deep end… but because they gave a damn.

All of them cared. When Meredy explained a little of what was going on, all of Crime Sorciere had come, ready to help however they could.

The world had been an easier place to deal with, having his guild around. When he'd abandoned them, he'd been so fucking scared. And when he thought that he'd gotten rid of Meredy, Cobra hadn't been as relieved to be alone as he'd thought he would be. Her showing back up had helped him to relax just a little bit, but he hadn't wanted to accept it at the time.

"I had Raven Tail," she said. "That's not who I want to be."

The soft whisper from her soul about there being two Flares inside of her drifted through his head, and his eye darted toward the horizon. "Then you're a lot like me," he said. "Raven Tail Flare and Sun Village Flare, right?"

She nodded, and he turned back toward her.

"Well, you've already met Cobra…" He chewed his cheek and found the ground a whole lot more interesting than having to look her in the eye. She was much more like him than he'd thought before. "Maybe you could meet Erik sometime."

"Who's Erik?"

"Me," he deadpanned, only to find her smiling shyly up at him. Cobra couldn't help but laugh while finally pulling her into his arms. "You dickbag."

He only had to wait a moment for her to laugh along with him, but then she melted against him. It was so easy for his arms to wind around her again. They stood in silence for several minutes before she spoke. "Just so you know, I'm not some creepy stalker," she sighed. "And I'm not in love with you."

"Good," he chuckled. He already knew she didn't love him, but it was still a relief to hear her say it. He sighed as her hands slid beneath his jacket and rested low on his back. "I'm glad you'll come though."

"We can't really be separated, from what you said."

Cobra shook his head while they both looked out toward the setting sun, bathing the world in orange, fiery light. "It's more than that," he whispered. "I want to get to know you. You're my mate and all that bullshit."

"You wouldn't want to know me if we weren't?" she asked.

Cobra shrugged, resting his cheek against her warm, comforting hair. "I can't really say," he said. "I'm not much of a people person. More often than not, they fucking suck ass."

"I never knew that," she giggled. "Do they do it often?"

And even though the day's events had worn him down more than he'd expected, Cobra found himself laughing along with her. Because he could hear in her soul that she meant it in a literal sense, complete with picturing whole scores of people crawling around ass-to-mouth in a disgusting human centipede. He looked into her eyes again, pushing his fingers into her hair. "I know you're scared of all the shit that's out there," he said, "But you'll have me around. And the rest of my guild, too."

"But you don't love me." She winced and glanced away from him. "And I don't really feel that way about you either. I mean, you're great in bed but…"

Cobra couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, I think it's safe to say that if you need me, I'll come running."

"What makes you think I'll need you?" she asked with a challenging smirk.

"You don't, really," he said. Fuck, he seriously loved seeing this fire in her eyes. "We got to see the Games in prison. Raven Tail Flare is pretty fucking sexy…" He loved even more the way she blushed as his hands slid down to cup her ass. "All you have to do is be her when the situation calls for it."

"And when it doesn't?" she breathed, stepping closer to him with her hair sliding under his clothes.

"Then be Sun Village Flare," he rasped. Cobra took a shaky breath as he kissed her. It was the first time he'd really kissed her since coming back to Sun Village. The tension curling in his gut from the direction of their conversation - and especially knowing just what she'd almost been forced to endure in her childhood if those slavers hadn't gotten lost - dissipated as time ticked onward. "Be my little Gingerbread."

Flare moaned against his lips and kissed him more fiercely than before. By the time she drew back, he was breathless. Fuck, what the hell was she doing to him? Cobra knew for a fact that he hadn't been nearly this desperate for her minutes prior. He hadn't _needed_ to feel her under his questing fingers that massaged up the length of her spine as she grinned up at him.

Except this wasn't a normal grin. It wasn't just her smiling at him. Hell no, this was that creepy fucking smile that he'd seen on the small lacrima television in the prison while she'd been torturing Lucy during the Games. This smile sent chills down his spine and a ravenous fire swirling in his gut.

Flare took a small step forward, pushing him away from the altar to the Eternal Flame, back the way they'd come. And damnit all, he let her push and pull him whichever direction she wanted to, because after that first step, she whispered something to him that had this strange urge to lay her out and claim her over and over again filling his entire being.

"I'm always going to be your Gingerbread, Erik."

He gasped when his back pressed against a pillar, bringing both hands to her cheeks and all but dragging her lips up to meet his in a kiss that was all desire and battling tongues and this gut-twisting _need_ to feel her closer, to know that he hadn't lost her even if their baby was gone. He had to taste her, to feel the fire and cinnamon dancing along his tastebuds that could only come from her.

And deep down, Cobra readily admitted that he rather liked the idea of her always being in his life.

He would need to tell Jellal at some point that Flare would be leaving Sun Village and the giants behind to be a part of their guild. But that could wait. He could already hear Meredy starting the conversation with Midnight about trying to convince Flare to come with them as they walked along the street far below the altar.

" _Do you think Jellal would go for it?"_

" _Meredy, I don't really see another option. If they can't be apart, then Cobra will probably say it's the only way. I think he hates being tied down to one place."_

" _Well, yeah. But it's more than that…"_

" _He doesn't love her. What else could it be?"_

" _I don't know, Macbeth. I just know that I saw something else there when I found him holding her. He does care about her, even if he won't admit it. I just want him to be happy, and I think Flare can help."_

" _Fine, you've convinced me. We'll tag-team Jellal in a little bit. For now, I need a nap."_

" _You really are a narcoleptic diva,"_ Meredy laughed.

And Cobra, for all he'd hated her prying on the surface beforehand, seriously fucking appreciated that Meredy gave a shit about him enough to go and talk to Jellal about Flare joining them. She didn't even know what he was planning, and Meredy was going based off of her romanticized version of the events surrounding them being there, but it meant that he didn't need to waste time making Jellal see that there really was no other way to handle this. Instead, he could focus on the woman in his arms, whose hair had slithered into his fucking pants when he was distracted.

Cobra whimpered when her hair wrapped around his cock and started to slowly stroke him. Flare drew back from the kiss and smirked, but he didn't fucking care. The strands tightened slightly, then warmed and moved with more purpose.

"I think I need to get you back to my room," she whispered, watching as Cobra gulped down a moan and his head tipped back against the pillar she'd pinned him to. "We can't really have sex, but I want to know more about this thing you have with my hair."

He wanted to deny it. Cobra really fucking did. Except then her hair twisted, and he could feel the silky strands winding around his cock and even down to his thighs, shifting and writhing like a clutch of snakes. It left his knees weak and shaky, his breath shortened to nothing more than pathetic little wisps of air. He could feel his cheeks burning already as he looked into her eyes.

For the first time in his life, though, he wasn't really all that embarrassed about someone finding out he liked this sort of thing. Not when he could hear her soul, and how happy she was that she had this magic that so perfectly suited what he secretly loved.

And maybe one day, he'd tell her about his mother, and how it was her hair that used to soothe him when he was in the Tower of Heaven. And later on, how Midnight stepped up to the plate to soothe Cobra's nightmares with his own long hair - and how he knew that it was the only reason Midnight had grown his hair out in the first place, just to help Cobra calm down again. But all of that could wait.

"Tell me, Erik," Flare rasped, nipping lightly at his pliant lips as more of her hair slithered out and wound around his wrists, pinning them at his sides. "Do you really have a hair fetish?"

He wasn't going to admit that to anyone. Cobra had never planned on actually saying the words out loud. In the past, he'd just silently demanded it while wrapping a woman's hair around his cock and jerking himself off. Still, the longer he looked into her eyes, the more at ease he felt until he finally nodded. He hadn't said it, but still…

Flare smiled and kissed him tenderly. "You know, I think Fate might be pretty smart," she whispered against his lips.

"Yeah?" he breathed. A lewd moan escaped him when her hair twisted.

"Yeah," she giggled, kissing him again. Her hair moved with more purpose, causing Cobra's back to arch as he struggled to move his arms. He couldn't fight it as her hair lifted his arms over his head. He looked down at her, his eye widening when he felt his pants starting to slip down his legs.

When the hell had she done that?

Flare winked and dropped to her knees in front of him. "Maybe we don't need to wait to get back to my room," she said.

"Wh-What the fuck are…" Cobra's voice trailed off when he saw her hair wrapped around his cock. Feeling it had been one thing, but seeing it was entirely different. The vibrant red locks crossed over one another, curled so easily as they coiled around his rigid length. And then her smiling lips came closer, and her tongue slipped out from between them to lightly flick across the tip of his weeping arousal. "Shit…"

"Should I stop?"

"Please don't," he groaned. "Don't fucking stop."

He lost himself in the heat of her mouth and hair as her lips surrounded him. Cobra forgot to listen to the world around them, far too focused on the beautiful sunset glow washing across Flare as her hair warmed and she slowly bobbed her head. For once, it was quiet. Her soul was nothing more than a soft, happy sigh, drowning out all other sounds. Her scent filled his every breath.

For the first time in his life, Cobra felt like he was at peace, even though he was bound and pinned to a pillar, out in the open. Her hair tightened slightly around his wrists, and several locks slid around his stomach, and his head tipped back once more.

And he smiled.

 _ **.The End.**_

* * *

 **And that's it for Cobra and Flare! There was a super citrusy scene that I'd had planned for this last year when I _should have_ written the update, but when I read through what I'd plotted out, and finally got to that point in this chapter... it just didn't feel right anymore. I wanted to keep some of the citrus for you guys, because honestly we haven't gotten much of the smut from this pairing, but I just had to tweak it a lot.**

 **And yes, if you're picking up subtle Midnight/Meredy vibes, I was definitely laying them down in here.**

 **Also, the plan all along was for her to lose the baby. If you think back to the Freed/Gajeel story (which takes place, chronologically, after this story), Flare and Cobra are travelling together with the guild, and there's no baby/child with them. Like I said when this particular story started, relationships come in all shapes and sizes. I'll leave it up to your imagination (for now) on whether these two have babies in the future hehe.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this final chapter - and this story in the _Submissive Dragons Series._ Now it's time for us to move on to the next Dragon Slayer pairing... we all know who that's gonna be.**


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